


maker's ruin

by gadaursan



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! VRAINS
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Final Fantasy XIV Fusion, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Body Horror, Canonical Character Death, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/F, F/M, Human Experimentation, M/M, Past Child Abuse, Politics, Secret Identity, Slow Burn, Torture
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-22
Updated: 2020-08-14
Packaged: 2020-09-28 07:47:48
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 14
Words: 86,778
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20422436
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gadaursan/pseuds/gadaursan
Summary: "But Miss Pandor," one skeptical child whined. "You said it's been a hundred years! Where is this Warrior of Darkness then?""We don't know where they are," she shook her head. "That's why we have this Crystarium - to make sure this person has a home to come back to and return the stars to us."





	1. a lying tale

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, I've never written a single word for VRAINS before, I'm late as hell to this fandom, but regardless, I'm going to share my absolutely self-indulgent, overly simplified and inaccurate FFXIV 5.0 AU (i.e. I wanted to write a Fantasy AU for this fandom while doing as little worldbuilding as possible). Do you need to play all of FFXIV to get into this? No, but it'll spoil some of the story beats, but hey, up to you.
> 
> Another thing: I've applied a work skin in this work to mostly make sure this fic is mobile friendly. Please don't turn creator's style off unless you want the images to bleed into the sides of the page.
> 
> This fic was meant to be read freely on Ao3 and Ao3 only.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Pandor tells the kids a bedtime story. Akira gets in trouble because Aqua ditches SOL. Yusaku goes hunting with Kusanagi, and Ai gives him a really bad headache.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've also scattered music links for your listening pleasure, in case if you want that extra level of immersion. In case the links break, I've put the name of the song if you need to search for it. The YouTube links are a one way ticket to spoiler town for the actual Shadowbringers game, so click at your own risk. Also video game music can be short so loop whenever you can.  
  
In addition to the pictures, that will accompany this fic, I've made [a Twitter account](https://twitter.com/datastorm_ffxiv) for the rest of the pics that didn't make the cut. You're free to check in if you want to see me mess around with my Yusaku and Ryoken alts.

_The village of Dampsole sat along the coast of The Thirstless Shore, once a fishing town adequate enough to rival those down in Sullen. But after an unfortunate raid by sin eaters and a rescue effort sent too late, Dampsole had been largely abandoned and overrun by the local fauna._

_This one stepped through the abandoned settlement, unnoticed by the anemones drifting in between the rotting wood. The everlasting Light scorned this one, but the shadow was fixated on a memory that could not resurface._

_That one had lived here, this one thought to themselves._

_The longer this one lingered in this ghost town, the sooner this one realized that the boy this one was searching for was never returning here. For goodness knows how long, this one's words could not reach him._

_If that was the case, this one began to think, where was he now?_

_Disappointed, this one turned away from the broken gate and returned home. This one should accept their fate instead of wishing to be whole again._

* * *

♬ | Now I Know The Truth - Nobuo Uematsu | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feovbkYbqR0) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/4V5gsAnZqNw3mGJepTRVUo?si=4hdLm-vWQZGRQyYUGrOTNg)

"Miss Pandor! Please tell us about that story again!"

A woman sighed and set a basket of blankets on the ground amid a small crowd of children. Honestly, she was beginning to wonder how much energy these children possessed now that they had been playing for hours and hours on end. She supposed that with no sun and moon to tell the time, they couldn't keep tally of how long they've been awake. Or perhaps they were just bored of running about the Crystarium, because Pandor sure had her fill of the place within a week when she was a child herself. Although that was years and years ago, when the master of this tower was someone else.

"Children, you mustn't keep me any longer," she tried the best apologetic look she could muster. "Why don't you run along to the Cabinet of Curiosity by yourselves and find the book? Or better yet, why don't you all go to bed?"

"But Miss Paaaaandooorrrrr!" One whined. "We like it when you tell it to us!"

"My little sister hasn't heard the story before!"

"We promise we'll go to sleep when the story is over!"

Try as she might to resist, the many pouting faces sealed the deal. She couldn't possibly imagine why the previous caretaker before her had left this position open. Heaving a deep sigh, Pandor settled onto a small wooden stool, and the children flocked to her side. One of them was so kind as to lay a box of toys across her lap, silently urging her to use them as props. Pandor cleared her throat.

"Now where shall we start?" she addressed them all, and one was polite enough to raise their hand to speak.

"Talk about the Light!"

"Yes! The one about the Warrior of Darkness!"

"All right," she began. "A hundred years ago, our world was far larger than it is today, and there was day and night. All was well until a party of six set a plan in motion that nearly destroyed our world."

"Ooh, ooh!" One child supplied readily. "Those were the Ignis!"

Every other child wrinkled their nose at the mention of the name.

"Yes," Pandor encouraged them. "And do you know what each of them were called?"

"Ohh, ooh! The Keeper!"

"The Builder! He was the leader!"

"I know one, too! There was the Scholar!"

"The scary one! I mean… the Destroyer!"

"The Navigator!"

"No, she wasn't the Navigator! She's the Oracle!"

"You guys! You're forgetting the Fury!"

"That's correct," The captain nodded approvingly, and reached into the box of toys and trinkets the children had given her earlier.

"First, the Builder," she took out a golden ball and placed it at her feet. "He was indeed their leader, and he was the most cunning of them all."

"The Keeper," a resembling a Talos was placed beside the golden ball. "A figure so large he might as well have been a wall."

"The Scholar, who conquered the wily fae," A barely stitched together pixie took the other side of the golden ball. Despite Pandor's efforts to make it lean on the ball, it slumped over onto its face.

"The Navigator, or as we know her, The Oracle," a blue satin doll was seated beside the wind-up Talos. "She divined a century's worth of prophecies and the truth."

"The Fury, who forged fires as strong as the sun," she chose a toy that resembled a lion, its orange mane shimmering like fire.

"And lastly, the Destroyer, whose fearsome might could cleave the skies."

The final piece was a crudely stitched together imitation of a man made from leftover purple cloth with yellow buttons for eyes. Unflattering appearances aside, the children gasped in awe and fear.

"These were the Ignis, villains who fooled mankind into purging every inch of darkness on this very star," Pandor motioned to the line of toys. "With Darkness gone and Light uncontested, Light poured into the world without cease. This sea of primordial light brought forth a colossal wave that swept across the land, leeching everything of life and vigor, our aether. This we called the 'Flood of Light.'"

"However, a savior in the form of the Oracle sought to stop the Flood. Breaking away from the treacherous Ignis, she faced her doom and stayed the Flood by her strength alone. Only thanks to her giving up her own life, Norvrandt was spared from being fully consumed by Light."

"But Miss Pandor," one child asked. "If the Oracle saved us, why do we have to keep hiding?"

This one must be one of the newly arrived ones, she assumed.

"A good question, child," Pandor nodded. "The Flood may have been halted, but not even the Oracle could hold back the white monsters who have come with the wave. To this day, these servants of the Light hunt for us, to finish what Light had originally intended, even stealing the night from our skies. But the Oracle-"

Pandor's voice faltered when she heard the faint sound of footsteps just outside the children's chambers. She could see a peek of someone's back through the crack in the door. Ah, she realized, she must really have been off schedule if he had to come fetch her. The children, however, didn't seem to notice his presence or the fact she had gone alert at the noise.

"And then, Miss Pandor, and then?"

"Ah, yes," Pandor regained composure, stiffly rearranging the stuffed toys to fill in the empty space she had created. "Where were we?"

"The part where the Oracle says something! The part when that person comes!" an excited little girl waves a wooden imitation of a sword in the air, narrowly missing another young listener.

"Thank you," Pandor continued. "The first Oracle, in her dying moments, uttered one final prophecy: one day, a true savior, a Warrior of Darkness will appear."

"One day?"

"Yes. One day."

"But Miss Pandor," one skeptical child whined. "You said it's been a hundred years! Where is this Warrior of Darkness then?"

"Will they ever show up?"

"Yeah, will they?"

"We don't know where they are," she shook her head. "That's why we have this Crystarium - to make sure this person has a home to come back to and return the stars to us. That is my duty as a member of the Hanoi Guard, and perhaps yours, too, when you grow older. Understand?"

The children nodded eagerly.

"Now, off to bed," Pandor stood up and ushered them all to their chambers. They all groaned discontentedly, but the children wouldn't dare disobey their favorite member of the Guard.

After much fussing, the children eventually slumbered away, muttering the same tale like it was their lifeline. Pandor quietly stepped around them and joined the man waiting outside the door. It was difficult to tell if he was displeased with her or not. Whenever he walked among the commons, he often wore a blank expression.

"My apologies, my lord," Pandor bowed her head. "It's the children, they-"

"No need to apologize," the man waved away her flustering. "The little ones these days can be quite persuasive."

"Then… who called for me?"

"No one important," The man shrugged and headed for the stairs just ways away from the orphanage. Pandor sighed in relief. She shouldn't have doubted that he would be generous about her tardiness.

"Very well," Pandor shut the door behind her, careful to not wake the children and followed the man out of the Catenaries. She noticed that he was donning his white coat, his bayonet across his back and an additional culverin at his hip [1]. He also happened to be wearing glamour that turned his hair red and his horns black [2].

"Are you heading out, my lord?"

"Something like that."

"Shall I escort you to the Accensor Gate then?"

"No need," he reassured her. "I won't venture far. Should the Crystarium come under siege, I'll be back by aetheryte. In the meantime, I'm granting you permission to use the Tower as you see fit."

Pandor considered the man's promise and bowed quietly behind him.

"Safe travels, Lord Kogami."

* * *

♬ | Pain in Pleasure - Masyoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O2mLeBpIPI) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

"Gone? What in the blazes do you mean she's gone?"

Akira struggled to mirror his superior's measured gaze, but it meant very little because she towered over him like any Galdjent would. "The Oracle has been flown out of Kholusia. We were unable to pursue her on foot."

"And the rumors that the 'Ghost of Kholusia’ had accompanied her and assisted her escape?"

Akira recalled their final encounter before the two women were gone for good at the edge of Bright Cliff. As skilled as they were at evading the watchful eye of his knights, they had been foolishly clumsy in their efforts to obtain a means of transportation. Akira had them cornered at the edge of a steep drop into the sea, but Ema and the Oracle leapt to what should have been their deaths, only to be seen flying away on a stolen amaro. The way she glared daggers at him was an expression he had never seen her direct at him before.

"They're true," he answered as evenly as he could manage.

"The Ghost was an informant of yours, if I remember correctly," The general recalled. "You didn't happen to be a part of this, too, did you?"

"The Ghost acted on her own," was Akira's excuse. "I assure you, my loyalty lies with Soltis, and yours, milady."

"And how will you prove that to me?" she challenged him, and he shifted uncomfortably where he stood. The adjutant dwelled on that moment on the cliff, wondering if things would have been better if he had been less hesitant to strike Ema down.

"Sir Zaizen," Queen reminded him that he was still standing here. "For the past year, I had tolerated your inaction on a great many things, that Blue Angel of yours impersonating my ward, for one. I'm beginning to think you are taking advantage of my kindness."

Of course Akira knew this. If not for Queen, he and Aoi would have remained in the slums below, slaving away for a near impossible chance to regain their right to live in Soltis as they should as free citizens. Despite her generosity, the general had allowed them to regain their former status under the condition that he enlisted in the Sol army. Akira could not betray her mercy, and he certainly couldn't allow a little girl's whims destroy everything that he had built to keep his sister safe on this dying earth. He imagined Ema also had the same experience before she came to this city under similar circumstances.

"I… will deal with the Ghost and the Oracle the same as any traitor to Soltis is to be treated," Akira bit his lower lip, willing himself to forget her just for a little more. "If she resists, I will not hesitate a second time."

As loathe as he was to admit it, Ema wouldn't have held it against him and would have even considered it professional.

"I will give you one last chance," she warned him. "Fail to meet my expectations, and you will find yourself living amongst the rabble in Gatetown once more. And-"

A very inhuman roar echoed in the far end of the chambers, tearing them from their discussion and startling nearby soldiers posted outside. It seemed that some poor bonded servant was about to be flung off the balcony for the mayor and his pets. Akira watched Queen wrinkle her nose at the wails that shook the Canopy. He may have found Queen's personality uncompromising, but he knew all too well the struggle of working under someone such as His Highness to truly dislike her.

"See to it that you take care of your own responsibilities," she cut the scolding short. "You shall have the full Sol army at your disposal. Do not disappoint me."

Ever the loyal adjutant, Akira bowed deeply even as she turned her back on him.

"Yes, milady."

* * *

Akira descended below to the Understory and began to fret over the logistics of his mission when he heard a soft sob in the armory. He peeked round the corner and spotted a small bonded servant girl with her head in her hands. Judging from the flowing tresses of her dress, he would assume she was hired as one of the chorus girls that sang in the clubs above and occasionally down in the Derelicts if the music masters were generous.

Next to her was the Blue Angel, or rather, her impersonator, and who could be the most famous of them all than his own sister Aoi. She, too, was dressed like the chorus girl, albeit with more intricate embroideries in her hair and skirt, for she was a free citizen. They must have come here after a performance.

"It's over…" the girl cried. "It's really over, isn't it…?"

"Don't cry," Blue Angel soothed her. "Even if chirurgeon said that there's no curing your ailment-"

"But, Blue Angel, you don't understand! I'll be cast out on the street if my patron finds out that my voice is no more!"

"I'm sure he won't," Blue Angel held the girl closer to her chest. "Your master is a kind man. He won't do such a thing after all the suns and moons you've given him peace."

"Gods have mercy…" the girl cried even harder and buried her face away from sight.

Akira fought the urge to cough or step in. He never quite liked that Aoi went out to pretend being the oracle of legend, fighting nearby monsters and singing songs to entertain the people of Gatetown. Once he had forbade her from using their glamour drawer to dye her hair blue, but regardless of whatever he did, Aoi would find some way to carry out her self-proclaimed duty of playing the Oracle. At first he and Queen were displeased that she was parading about in such a fashion while the real Oracle was under lock and key in the Understory, but after a while, they came to accept this Blue Angel as a necessary "ray of hope" for the people of Soltis.

"Tell you what," Blue Angel declared. "I shall speak with your patron to have a word with Lord Kitamura, and we can arrange for your ascension."

The girl's sobs died down, and she looked up at her in confusion.

"Ascension…?"

"Yes," Blue Angel smiled sweetly, enclosing the girl's hands in hers. "Lord Kitamura will deliver you unto a paradise where there will be neither pain nor illness. There, you can sing clearly again."

The chorus girl looked like she was going to cry again, but this time with joy. "You would do all this for me?"

"Of course I would. As the Blue Angel, I must help every citizen, bonded or free, to answer their call to our final rapture. You, too, must play your part."

"You're too kind, milady!"

"There, there," Blue Angel patted her on the head and helped her to her feet. "Now how about you go tell your patron of the good news? I shall follow you shortly."

"Yes! And praise Lord Kitamura!"

No longer the weeping warbler she once was, the bonded girl beamed as she bounded away for the Canopy above. When she passed right by Akira, Blue Angel became Aoi again, her once cheerful expression going blank. As she shifted in her dress, a small clinking of metal caught Akira’s attention to the embellished rapier at her hip. So she was doing more than just sing with the rest of the girls outside, now, was she? Aoi appeared to have read his mind and leveled her gaze as challenge.

"I believe we’ve gone through this before, Aoi," Akira defended himself. "But you cannot simply go out to fight sin eaters without others accompanying you."

"I haven't been gone for that long," Aoi retorted hotly.

"You are no Oracle, so do not pretend to replace her.”

His sister pursed her lips and she reached for the jeweled pommel of her sword protectively, and Akira struggled to keep his frustrations to a simmer. Aoi, meanwhile, looked most eager to change the subject.

"Might I be able to see Aqua this evening, then?"

The adjutant looked to the line of halberds posted on the side, anything but her face.

"I must apologize," he began solemnly. "But you cannot see Aqua."

Aoi frowned at his refusal.

"Why?"

Akira's breath hitched at the question. His sister had no ties to the military, so she should never be privy to any disappearances or missing reports. But both had been so close ever since Aqua came to this city. He had to stay honest with her, because if she didn't get a clear answer from him, she would most certainly find other, potentially more destructive ways to get her hands on that information.

"She's been kidnapped," Akira confessed. "We were unable to stop her and her captors from escaping the island."

Her face fell at the news. "But how?"

"That is… confidential. Queen has assigned me leave to assemble a search party for the Oracle."

He was beginning to dislike the look of determination building on her face. "Then I must accompany-"

"No, you shall not," Akira cut her off. "It's unsafe beyond Kholusia. You are to remain here in Soltis."

"But-"

"Like you said, we all have our part to play here," he said to her. "I will find Aqua and bring her back. You will stay home."

At that point, Aoi closed her open mouth and didn't speak. Akira supposed another reason he didn't put a stop to her charade because her little jaunts to Gatetown and other parts of Kholusia must have opened her eyes to the dangers outside of Soltis. He had no doubt that Aoi had witnessed just how painful and frightening it was to be brought down with affliction. Perhaps through those experiences, she had come to understand why the two of them were so fortunate to be living in the City of Final Pleasures. Good thing she knew full well what was at stake here.

"Of course… brother."

* * *

♬ | The Source - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pxv8P2lMQgI) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

Call it a seventh sense of sorts, but Yusaku could feel their mark was close. He shot up from where he lay and surveyed the woods below.

"Did you feel something?" asked Kusanagi, who had been watching him lie in wait for the entire morning.

"Mm," Yusaku got up from the ground, and nodded towards the direction he had felt its presence. It was quite a ways away from where they stood, but that was par for the course when his sense for locating sin eaters was less of a proper compass and more of a general feeling of revulsion at any concentration of Light within a radius of twenty malms. Accurate or not, it saved Yusaku a sun’s worth of time, and he was always grateful whenever the elite bill postings were for sin eaters.

It seemed that Kusanagi was of the same mind, too, for he motioned to the amaro they had borrowed from the Homuras' stables. The dark bird crooned softly and strode over to them, bowing its head so they could mount. [3]

"Good Salaman," Kusanagi gave its head a loving pat. He got on first and helped Yusaku to get behind him on the saddle. Soon enough, they were soaring above the woods on the lookout for anything unusually white and rampaging at anything that moved. The two hunters followed the sound of a shriek right around the bend and found their mark assaulting a wagon in the middle of the road. Someone was holding it off with what appeared to be a branch, too cowardly to fight back, but too bold to abandon their belongings.  
  
"I'm getting off," Yusaku told Kusanagi, letting go of the man's waist and slowly getting his feet out of the stirrups. Kusanagi couldn't turn around with his eyes on the route.  
  
"Don't break a leg now."  
  
Not bothering to dignify that jab with a response, Yusaku launched off from the saddle and dove straight down to the creature. He reached behind him and drew his sword, aligning his blade to the ground and impacting right on top of the sin eater's back. It thrashed wildly about, throwing him and his sword off it and into the dirt beside the wagon. The traveler cried in alarm at the sight of him skidding across the forest floor and catching himself on one of the wheel's spokes.  
  
"W-Where did you come from?!"  
  
Before Yusaku could say anything, the sin eater roared, its single eye trained on him. He could close the gap by jumping back into the fray, but the traveler was far too close to the creature for comfort. He had to distract it and get her out of the way before he could act.  
  
In the corner of his eye, Yusaku spied a tip of a lance packed into the side of the wagon. He took hold of the shaft and ripped out the ropes that kept it in place. He poised to aim, raising the lance over his head, and threw it as hard as he could. Sure enough, the head struck true, right in what should have been its eye. The creature reeled backwards, screeching and clawing at the offending object lodged in its head.  
  
Now that the sin eater was preoccupied, Yusaku rushed forth, blade at the ready. With one hand, he grabbed the woman by the collar and unceremoniously tossed her behind him as far as he could. He took one more stride and found himself right underneath its neck. Snapping out of its stupor, his mark threw a hasty swing at him from the side as a last resort, but his sword was raised to block it.  
  
His sword held fast against the creature's blow, and Yusaku could hear a crack in the metal, but he wasn't about to waste a single second. Winding his free arm backwards, the hunter concentrated aether into his hand then thrust an open palm into its chest, shattering the bones underneath. The sin eater made one last screech before it slumped over, never getting back up again.  
  
While Yusaku gave his mark a smart kick, the shaking woman looked at the monster that attacked her, then up at Yusaku, then back the monster again.  
  
"H-Hey, aren't you going to get away?"  
  
Yusaku frowned back at her. "Why?"  
  
"T-The sin eater!" She sputtered. "Its Light! The corruption!"  
  
He looked back at the felled sin eater disintegrating into small particles of light.  
  
Ah, that.  
  
Without so much as a glance back at the traveler's direction, Yusaku stayed and yanked the lance out of the dying sin eater. The blood, or whatever substance flowed in this creature's veins, dribbled off the edge of the blade. Perhaps he should step aside to the nearby stream to clean it first out of courtesy.  
  
"Don't you worry about him," Kusanagi, the more courteous out of the two of them, extended a hand to help her to her feet. "He's been doing that for years, and he's never shown a sign of turning."  
  
"But that's… that's impossible!" The traveler cried, then sighed exasperatedly. "I… I just don't understand you hunters!"  
  
While Kusanagi laughed at her disbelief, Yusaku had to agree with her. Hunters of notorious beasts, sin eaters, especially, required some lack of self-preservation. Under normal circumstances, Yusaku would have gotten afflicted standing in such close proximity to a dying sin eater for longer than a few minutes. It was difficult to explain why such a phenomenon happened to the common man, only that a sin eater strong and brave enough to go after any nearby settlement possessed enough primordial Light to plant the seeds of corruption in one's heart. Excessive exposure to Light could develop into a wasting sickness that corrupted the aether in the body, a one way road to becoming a sin eater. Now, how Yusaku, and to a lesser extent, Takeru and Jin, could resist these corrupting influences, that was a different story, and one he was not about to explain to some passersby.  
  
Spooked by her close encounter with death, the woman scurried back to her wagon to assess the damage. Yusaku realized he still had the lance he so kindly borrowed from her wagon and walked her way to return it. The traveling merchant most certainly saw this coming, and as just as he made a move, she was already backing away from him as if he were handing her a rotting carcass.  
  
"Your lance, would you-"  
  
"A-Actually, just keep it!" the woman looked like she would faint if he took another step. "Uh… consider it payment for saving me."  
  
His gaze turned to the lance for consideration. A partisan carved from white oak, if he was correct, and forged with deepgold. It wasn't all that bad or expensive, but he would have preferred something far more durable if he was going to keep it. But who was he to complain about a free weapon? All he could do now was respect the traveler's wishes to part with this weapon.  
  
Once she had set all the things on the wagon in order, the traveler was off on her merry way, and left him and Kusanagi on an empty road. With the commotion gone, the typical summer buzzing resumed as the wildlife slowly went back to their daily business.  
  
"Well, we got the job done, so that's what matters," Kusanagi noted, wiping his hands free of sawdust from putting the wagon back together. Yusaku hummed back in agreement, still looking down at the lance he definitely couldn't leave aside on the road.  
  
"The sin eater's gone, so I got the stone," the older man handed him the item in question. "Can't get any credit without the stone."  
  
Like Kusanagi had described, most of the sin eater had already gone, save for the blue stone orb the size of his palm. Yusaku turned the thing over to inspect the large crack running down the middle from where he threw the lance. It was damaged, all right, but it was adequate proof that he had slain the elite mark of the week. Yusaku put away the stone into the sack hanging off of Salamangreat's saddle. One quick look inside and he could see that their haul was filling up rather well from this past week's hunts.  
  
"We should turn these in within this week," Yusaku suggested. "The new bills will be posted in a few days."  
  
"Yeah, I've been considering that," Kusanagi agreed and suddenly had an idea. "Actually, while we're there, we should probably visit the Mean, get you a new- Oh, don't look at me like that. After that stunt you pulled, I don't think your sword is going to be of any use aside from a glorified plank."  
  
He had a point, now that Yusaku assessed the damage the fight had on his weapon, a rather weathered deepgold anelace. It was cracking in places from years of rough use, and if a giant appeared this very instant and ran into it, the blade would certainly break. Yet the idea of replacing his sword with something else left a great deal of distaste in Yusaku's mouth for three reasons.  
  
First, replacing a weapon, let alone a greatsword, was expensive. Even though he, Kusanagi, and Takeru hauled home a great deal of gil from hunting elite marks, one good new sword would eat a good chunk of their earnings. He should really count himself lucky for getting a free lance from that traveler.  
  
Second, finding a good sword that suited him was just as difficult. The Crystalline Mean wasn't all that flexible about making weapons that suited outlier cases. For a Mystel on the scrawny side like himself, greatswords were often a poor match because they were generally heavy and unwieldy. Yusaku had stuck to this same greatsword for years now because he could never quite find another with a weight and durability quite like his.  
  
And third, there was nothing he hated more than spending one sun near the Crystal Tower. In the back of his mind was still that distant, painful memory of having once stayed in that accursed tower. The Crystarium's inhabitants would never believe him and what he went through and instead lived blissfully unaware at what horrors had been done in their name, at his expense, from that person's sacrifice.  
  
"I don't like going there, either," Kusanagi shook his head. "But better to be safe than sorry. And don't worry about the money. You're family."  
  
Family, Yusaku echoed the words silently. He supposed that they were one. The last thing his friend would have wanted was either him dying and turning into sin eaters like the elder Kusanagis did. Jin could arguably be on the edge of meeting the same fate, but Kusanagi had insisted for years that his brother didn't possess the blighted affliction even as the boy could no longer hear anything. Yusaku thoroughly disliked the idea of filling in the empty space that was rightfully Jin, yet he stayed by Kusanagi selfishly. They could ill afford to lose each other.

* * *

Kiku happened to be outside cleaning the tables when Kusanagi and Yusaku landed right outside the entrance of the springs. As soon as she saw them dismounting, she set aside the cleaning rags and rushed to Salamangreat's side. The amaro trotted eagerly to her, nuzzling her cheek while she giggled at the tickling sensation.  
  
"Glad to see you brought him back in one piece," she stroked the bird's head. "How did the hunt go?"  
  
"Got the elite mark of the week," Kusanagi detached their hunting sack and held it up for her to see. "All thanks to Yusaku."  
  
"Oh, really? That's wonderful! Looks like we'll be able to repair the stables this month!"  
  
Yusaku looked away in embarrassment. No matter how long he's been under Kusanagi and the Homuras' care, he was never going to get used to this. It had only been a year since he was corralled into one of the inn's spare rooms when Takeru found out he was still living in the run down shacks in Dampsole. But having to spend every evening around a dinner table with so many people was not an entirely unwelcome experience.  
  
"The sin eater was on the way here going after some traveler," he explained blandly. "I did her the favor of slaying it."  
  
"Honestly gave her a good frightening than a rescuing, he did," Kusanagi added. "At least she gave him something for it."  
  
Yusaku wordlessly holding up the lance for everyone to see.  
  
"It looks really well made!" Kiku marveled over the handiwork, her tail swishing back and forth. "Do you know how to use it, though?"  
  
"Of course he does," Kusanagi spoke for him. "The kid's been using those ever since he could fight."  
  
In truth, Yusaku started out with a greatsword and learned how to use polearms from a passing Galdjent hunter who claimed to have trained from a long line of Voeburtite dragoons before the Flood. There wasn't much instruction in their lessons aside from jumping down impossible heights and helping said hunter kill some marks, but Yusaku found value in making use of his light weight to jump and dive with a lance for precise strikes if he had to take out anything that had wings. Although these days he much preferred a greatsword, the diving arts still proved useful for more challenging maneuvers much like the one he performed today.  
  
"You really are something, aren't you, Yusaku?" Kiku agreed. "Good thing Takeru only attends hunts with you two."  
  
"What's this about me going on a hunt?" The young man in question strode out with two basketfuls of laundry to air out. Salamangreat rumbled excitedly at him, and said owner hummed in return on his way over to them.  
  
"Yusaku and Shoichi are back from their hunt," Kiku informed him. "They got the sin eater posted this week."  
  
"Already?" Takeru's smile turned downcast. "Sorry I couldn't join you guys. Grandfather needed more hands with a whole two squads from Fort Jobb coming in today."  
  
"Don't apologize," Kusanagi chided him. "You and your family giving us a place to stay is more than enough."  
  
"I'm sorry, but I feel I should be going out more..."  
  
"If it makes you feel better," Yusaku chimed in. "We're paying a trip to the Crystarium to turn in our marks in a few days. You should come with us."  
  
"Really?" Takeru's spirits lifted at the offer. "Of course I'll come along! I'll make sure Grandfather and Grandmother know."  
  
"We might have to stay a night or two in a spare room at the Pendants if we go," said Kusanagi. "We're going to the Mean for some new equipment."  
  
"Then all the more reason I should come along!"  
  
"All right," Kiku began herding them into the direction of the inn. "We've stood outside long enough. Let's get you inside and ready for supper before any of us get afflicted."  
  
Yusaku excused himself to put away his weapons and headed in the direction of the family's personal shed with his lance and greatsword. Takeru, meanwhile, had the laundry switched for Salamangreat's reins and followed his friend to the stables.  
  
"Two days in the Crystarium, huh," Takeru mused. "Think we could get an audience with the Exarch?"  
  
Yusaku doubted this. Firstly, ever since the death of the first Crystal Exarch, protector of the Crystarium and master of the Crystal Tower, it's been said the second had taken his place. Neither Yusaku nor Takeru have ever seen the new Crystal Exarch before, since said individual never left the Crystal Tower, let alone step foot in the Crystarium. Most residents reasoned that the Exarch was being cautious, determined not to die by assassination the same way the first one did.  
  
Secondly, in spite of their seeming absence from public view, the Crystarium still functioned smoothly because the Exarch commanded the Hanoi Guard. Only their highest ranking officers of the Guard could access the tower and the Exarch themselves. The only two such individuals Yusaku knew of were Pandor, the official captain of the Hanoi Guard, and Revolver, who seemed to hold no position in the Guard as far as Yusaku knew. Hunters like himself and Takeru would never be allowed anywhere close to the Ocular.  
  
Lastly, even if Yusaku or Takeru knew the two said individuals, prying any answers out of either them was a fool's errand. The Guard, Pandor included, wouldn't bother fulfilling the demands of a mere three or four hunters. And Revolver was just infuriating to speak with, in Yusaku's opinion. Any time he had the misfortune to meet the dragon of a man, Revolver would always have something on his mind to provoke Takeru or assert the clear superiority of his height over both of them, all while feigning ignorance to their questions.  
  
The entire Hanoi Guard seemed to pay Revolver no mind, or they actively rooted for him whenever Yusaku or Takeru had gotten fed up with him to actually fight him. Yusaku pitied any unfortunate soul who had to spend so much as an entire sun with that Drahn. There had to be at least some people in the Guard who might find Revolver an insufferable bastard who abused his power as the Exarch's advisor and representative to bully hapless hunters.  
  
"The two of us visiting the Crystarium isn't going to change their mind, so no."  
  
Takeru's face fell, a look he quickly his behind his back as he put away Salamangreat's barding. "True enough... I just thought that... Er... Never mind what I said then."  
  
Yusaku understood his friend's frustration. They deserved to know the truth of what happened ten years ago. Their six months of anguish was of the Hanoi Guard’s doing, not some dwindling church everyone laid blame on now that the Flood had ushered away everyone's faith in anything pertaining to Light. But taking their anger out on the good people who worked at the Crystarium wouldn't do any good. Compared to, say, Soltis, where the affluent of Norvrandt had fled and lived out the last of their days in opulence so long as they paid reverence to its mayor, the Crystarium would seem a paradise for the hardworking man. Everyone depended on the Crystal Tower's strength, no matter who controlled it and how many suffered to keep this small bastion of hope alive.  
  
As Yusaku locked the armory, Takeru was quick to change the subject.  
  
"Anyways, you know the guys from Fort Jobb are in for tonight? They brought over a whole barrel of frantoio oil, so we made battered-"  
  
Before Takeru could finish, a shot of pain flared in Yusaku's head, sending him shoulder first into the wall. Behind him, Takeru was also reacting badly to a headache of his own, chanting some futile prayer to will the pain away. Salamangreat and the other fowl creatures in the stables squawked in alarm and began scratching at their cages to be let out. In his panic, Yusaku struggled to regain his breath as words, actual words and not garbled noise, filled his head.  
  
_"Any... one? Can... anyone... hear... me? He... Hey..."_  
  
Believing this mysterious voice to be the cause of their suffering of the week, Yusaku looked ahead and saw a strange dark cloud at their doorway. Maybe it looked human, Yusaku didn't really care at the moment, but the pace it was approaching him and Takeru was alarming.  
  
In defense, Yusaku swiped at the cloud, catching nothing and only getting an even bigger wave rolling through his head. Surprised, he let our a strangled cry and fell forward into the floor, clutching his head. As the pain grew worse, the voice gained clarity by the second.  
  
"It's you! It's really you! I knew it! If I followed the voice and…"  
  
At that point, Yusaku couldn't comprehend a single thing this stranger was babbling about. He cracked one eye open and saw a Mystel man in black armor flail about, his purple and black tail flying behind him as he paced within the stables excitedly.  
  
"Who… are you?" He choked out.  
  
The man froze in place, slowly turning to the hunter struggling to prop himself up from the ground. The surprised look on his face looked near comical if not for the fact that Yusaku's head was trying to pound him into unconsciousness.  
  
"Y-You can hear me? See me?"  
  
Yusaku nodded weakly, uncertain if the stranger could even see him move.  
  
Still overcome with shock, the man's knees went weak, and he collapsed into a heap. He reached out to touch the young man, but although Yusaku shrunk away from the touch, the stranger's hands found no purchase and went right through his shoulder. The man's astonishment turned into horror as he tried to touch the hunter again, still not catching onto anything, not even the wall they were cornered against. He was no man, only a shade.  
  
"I've been walking for so long," the man began to weep, his ears turning back and flat to his head. "But why…?"  
  
At this point, Yusaku could no longer keep himself awake, and oblivion claimed him.

* * *

1 Everyone does a FFXIV job or two, but aren't strictly bound by this. If it were me, everyone would be Astrologian, Summoner, and Scholar, but I gotta be diverse.

  * Yusaku - Dark Knight, Dragoon
  * Ryoken - Gunbreaker, Machinist
  * Kusanagi - Summoner, Scholar
  * Takeru - Monk, Warrior
  * Aoi - Red Mage
  * Aqua - White Mage
  * Ema - Ninja
  * Pandor - Dancer, Astrologian
  * Queen - Warrior
  * Akira - Paladin
  * Ai - Dark Knight

2 I ended up mixing up FFXIV races for the rest of the cast, too. So a small list for who's who so far:

  * Yusaku, Ai - Mystel (cat ears and tail)
  * Ryoken, Aqua, Kiku - Drahn (dragon horns for ears, scales in places, and a tail)
  * Takeru, Kusanagi, Aoi, Akira, Lightning - Hume (just a human)
  * Go - Ronso (Tall, big tiger like people)
  * Queen, Pandor, Spectre - Elf (what it says on the tin, tall, slightly longer neck, and pointy ears)
  * Baira - Galdjent (tall like an Amazon or a bear)
  * Ema, Blood Shepherd - Viis (bunny ears and tail)
  * Shima - Dwarf (Small little people)

I wasn't joking when I said this was self-indulgent. If more characters appear, I'll list them as they show up in later chapters.

3 [Amaro](https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Amaro_Horn) are adorable black feathered camel-like birds that are the primary transportation in this world. Takeru got to name the bird, so of course he names it after something he knows best. Most of the terminology and names come from FFXIV, but I tried to put some VRAINs flavor into this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11/24/19 Revisions: I changed my mind and decided that Jin is axed (for now), so he's one of the afflicted, but likely to be cured in the distant future


	2. prelude: unhappy reunions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A "pre-canon" moment of Ryoken and Yusaku's first meeting after the Lost Incident that doesn't go quite right because of course not.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was meant to be added to the beginning of the next chapter as a flashback, but it got too long.

♬ | Far East of Eorzea by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://youtu.be/3vTppMWyu0M) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/1N8OOg34vTUExkLUNofXf8?si=w9J0UozlTx-geAbfHIJLRQ)

_When Revolver heard word of an altercation beyond the guard's control down at the fish markets at the docks near the Source, he volunteered to go deal with the situation himself. The others were preoccupied with work after insisting he complete his training before assuming full duties of the Crystal Exarch. This wasn't to say he was ungrateful for the likes of Faust, Baira, and Dr. Genome, but he was unhappy with how much he was being treated like a mere child when he was old enough to handle a difficult hunt._

_He landed his amaro outside the small bustling market and tied the reins to a nearby tree. Even from here, he could hear the chaos happening from within. The Hanoi Guard members took sight of him instantly and were quickly to air their grievances._

_"Sir Revolver! You came just on time!"_

_"We've been trying to settle the commotion, but he just won't go down!"_

_"He?"_

_"Yes, sir. It's one boy, and he's tearing up the stalls!"_

_One person? Revolver assumed all this noise was the work of a few bandits, but there was no sign of any guards apprehended outside the perimeters. In that case, a customer was starting a fight?_

_"Lead the way," he commanded the guard, who nodded and walked him into the market. They were stopped short by a man skidding across the ground to their feet. The guard on the floor blinked up at Revolver and went white upon realizing who he was. Every single Hanoi Guard in the vicinity had a similar reaction._

_"After him!" One of the Hanoi hollered, and they drew their swords, ready to engage with the enemy with newfound fervor. They were quickly cowed by another guard thrown in their direction. Revolver was struck with wonder at how anyone young could have done just that. _

_Square in the middle of the normally civil fish market was a Mystel boy no older than himself, deep in the heart of the fight. He swiftly stepped around a punch aimed at his head and went under his opponent, arms outstretched for a tackle. He hefted one soldier by the arm and swung him at the ore crates, breaking them and letting all the bluespirit ore spill out onto the ground._

_Without a word, the boy stood up and caught the arm of one bold guard, knocking the sword out of his hands and kicking him down into the dirt. He leapt into the air at an impressive height to dodge the swing of another sword and landed lightly on another stall, using his tail to keep balance on the small perch. Revolver observed the lance strapped behind his back and had to admit he was pleasantly surprised. Not once had this boy thought to draw his own weapon._

_"This is the cause of our troubles?" He turned to the guard who brought him here._

_"Y-Yes," The guard flushed in embarrassment. "We don't know what happened, but we've gathered accounts that he walked into the place without warning and beat up the first guard he could find."_

_If that was the case, he could have easily gone for the guards posted outside the markets, Revolver thought to himself. He looked back at the guard who couldn't even look him in the eye anymore. He had an inkling that maybe the guards here were omitting some crucial details._

_"Please, call the guard off!" An elderly woman almost threw herself at him and the accompanying guard._

_"What is the meaning of this?" Revolver inquired as he held her steady. "And keep it brief."_

_"This young man did nothing wrong," the woman told him. "He's been setting straight this unruly guard of yours out here harassing the sellers for an extra share of gil! They had the gall to pull on his tail when he told them to stop!"_

_Revolver looked back at the scuffle, where the boy was still fending off every guard launching themselves at him. He looked to the rest of the merchants and visitors standing clear of the entire fight, and they were booing the guards for daring to stop him. Well, this certainly changed the situation._

_"I gave no such orders!" The guard cried. "It was just one guard, and this boy wouldn't stop fighting back when we told him to!"_

_"You think we don't have eyes or ears?" The woman shouted back at him. "We saw you tell your damned guards to shake us down!"_

_"That's preposterous! I wouldn't-"_

_"Now, now," Revolver raised a hand to silence them both. "I've come from the Crystarium to settle this mess. You needn't worry any longer."_

_A mix of various emotions flashed through both the woman and the guard's face as he turned away and walked into the fray. All the guards seeing him approach were quick to back away and form a path for him to walk through, and the young Mystel who started it all also took notice of him._

_Now that the boy wasn't moving so much, Revolver couldn't help but notice the ugly bruise obscuring his eye, and he wondered just how long he had been fighting for. The Mystel was drenched in sweat, blue hair clinging to his face. Clearly this entire fight was starting to wear him down, but not enough to keep him from burning holes into Revolver with his eyes. Something about this boy was familiar to him somehow, and he couldn't exactly pin down where he had seen him before._

_"Who are you?" The boy scowled._

_"I was called here to deal with disturbance by the docks," Revolver put on a light smile. "And the people hear say you're their little hero. So what's the truth?"_

_"You are of the Hanoi Guard, are you not?" The boy asked him through his teeth. "Then why are your men hurting the people you're meant to protect? Once you've hit your lowest, any kind of low is all right to you now?"_

_Revolver didn't know exactly what the boy meant, but he could confirm now that the Mystel wasn't simply a feral child running loose. This made things easier._

_"You could have resolved this by a formal report," he suggested. "Would save a lot of trouble instead of acting out like a bristled kitten who-"_

_Before Revolver could get another word in, a lance firmly planted itself right between his feet, even taking a small bit of metal from his belt buckle. He looked up slowly and saw the Mystel standing ramrod straight, eyes blazing and tail standing on end._

_Oh, that boy was certainly angry now._

_"What did you call me?!" The boy snarled with doubled fury._

_"I believe I called you a… bristled kitten," He tried not to let his grin slip at the way the Mystel flared at the name. Losing face here would not be good for him. "Oh. Did I strike a nerve?"_

_A low growl bubbled in the boy's throat as he lunged at him. Revolver didn't have time to register the boy tackling him until the wind was knocked out of his lungs and he was seeing stars. Everyone watching made alarmed sounds, but they didn't dare intervene._

_Revolver's hands shot up to the boy's shoulders in an attempt to pry him off, but the boy wouldn't give up. Their faces were too close for comfort, but Revolver could see every inch of the raw emotion on the boy's face. Such a terrifying expression was ill suited for such pretty eyes._

_"A little... Much... Don't you think?" His voice strained from the struggle. "How are you so small and so-"_

_He really put another foot in his mouth this time because the boy roared and lifted him off the ground. Revolver took the chance to put one well placed punch at the other's center and shoved him aside, but the boy recovered quickly and rolled away from him._

_"Sorry about that," Revolver apologized immediately for the jab, but the boy didn't answer him. His eyes were trained on his hands, waiting to see what he'd do next._

_Revolver took care not to show his fingers ghosting over his holster. He couldn't think of hurting this boy, a mere civilian, not when everyone here had a low opinion of the Hanoi Guard already. Besides, it wasn't like this boy was trying to kill Revolver, otherwise he would have taken the opportunity to strangle him when they were piled on top of each other. He was simply having a bad day and lashing out on whoever disturbed him._

_"You wish something to be done about whatever schemes happened here, yes?" Revolver tried to turn the conversation back around again. "I can do that."_

_"How?" The Mystel asked, not looking any milder._

_"As the highest ranking officer of the Hanoi Guard, I will relieve the responsible guards of their duties for extortion," Revolver kept his voice steady. "You have my word."_

_The boy didn't believe him. Revolver was going to have to take initiative if he was going to make any headway._

_"You, and all of you," He looked at the guard member who was in charge then scanned over every single guard member on the ground. "Remove your armor and leave it here._

_"What!? But I-"_

_"Say another word, and you will find yourself standing post at the Inn at Journey's Head," Revolver added, and the soldiers shut their mouths quickly. To be stationed out in the middle of an unforgiving desert where the afflicted went to die was the last thing any member of the guard wanted._

_The commanding soldier swayed where he stood and removed his helmet. Instead of placing it down civilly, he dropkicked it at the Mystel boy standing behind him. To his misfortune, the boy caught it deftly and casually tossed it down by Revolver's feet. The other lower ranked guard members were too afraid to disobey and followed suit._

_"Well?" Revolver looked back at the boy for validation. The boy looked neither happy nor displeased by getting what he wanted, instead caring more about the lance he stuck in the ground minutes earlier. The guards behind him, now stripped down to their tunics and trousers, made discontent noises at him but went immediately silent when he glared daggers at their direction._

_Meanwhile, the other villagers and merchants sighed in relief. Some even cheered over proper justice being served and for the boy for having stood up to these guards. Now that the thrill of a fight had gone, everyone went back to usual business, cleaning up after themselves as they returned to the makeshift street. It may be perpetual daylight here in Lakeland, but there was a noticeable cool breeze rushing in from the west, signifying the coming of more dangerous hours, when the sin eaters were more likely to come looking for food._

_One even had the courage to walk past the soldiers and up to the boy to return to him a sack of fish, likely the purchases he made right before he got into the fight. The Mystel muttered a small thanks, bowed his head respectfully to the older merchant, then gathered his things to leave. He didn't even care to walk around Revolver, instead slamming his entire shoulder with every ounce of disrespect he could muster. This was one rude boy, Revolver mused as he watched him go, but at least he had guts._

_"Wait," he called out, and the boy listened. "I'd like to know your name."_

_The boy turned around reluctantly and stared him dead in the eye._

_"Fujiki," he answered tonelessly. "Yusaku Fujiki."_

_"Fujiki, is it?" Revolver repeated to make sure he said the name right. "Ever thought of enlisting in the Hanoi Guard? We could use a strong hand here, since you care so much about restoring order here."_

_The Mystel flared up again, as if the very idea of an invitation was more offending than a casual slur._

_"Not a chance," Fujiki stalked up to him till their were chests apart and spat at him. Revolver restrained himself from acting out from the mistreatment. So he hated the Hanoi Guard, Revolver learned._

_"Might I ask why?"_

_"Three reasons why," Fujiki jabbed three fingers into his face, and this took Revolver by surprise. No, wait, that can't be worth reacting to. Anyone could say that without knowing him. He mustn't overthink things._

_"First, I don't want any association with the Hanoi Guard."_

_"Second, I will never serve that monster that rules from your godsddamn tower!"_

_"Monster?" Revolver arched one eyebrow. He was actually a little offended at that, being called a monster from afar. Not that he could have said anything back without revealing who he was. Right now he was not the succeeding Crystal Exarch, simply a nameless, masked lackey._  
_But of course, Fujiki was not finished. "And Third, I won't forgive the Hanoi for what you did to those children in the Crystal Tower."_

_"Children?" The nearby merchants still watching them whispered amongst themselves. "What children?"_

_The boy's words had sparked interest among the crowd. This wasn't good. He needed to quell the rumors, fast._

_"You must be mistaken," Revolver said coolly. "If you're referring to the Church of the First Light, then you must know that the Crystarium had nothing to do with those child abductions."_

_"That is a lie, and you know it, don't you, high ranking officer of the Hanoi Guard?" Fujiki pressed an accusing finger against Revolver's chestplate. "If not, go ask that man in the tower about it!"_

_This boy was not easily fooled. Revolver could tell in the earnest anger of Fujiki's eyes that he knew about that incident. Almost as if he lived it. And the three things…_

_It all came crashing back to him. He had met Yusaku Fujiki before, and knew him better than he had any right to. Revolver barely knew what had happened to the children he set free from the basement they were kept in when they weren't experimented on in the Crystal Tower. Not when he had been sealed away afterwards for good when Soltis took notice of his deeds and went looking for Revolver, only to find and kill his father for being responsible. Even these past years when he finally put together his disguise, Revolver hadn't kept as close of an eye as he should have on the survivors of that incident aside from Spectre, but now one just walked right into him._

_Fujiki had every reason to hate him, the Hanoi Guard, the Crystarium. But if he knew about that, then clearly the monster he was referring to wasn't Revolver himself, but the man before him. Considering that this boy lived ways away from Crystarium and likely wouldn't bother stepping foot onto any Hanoi-affiliated property, he must not have known what became of the Crystal Exarch he despised so much._

_"I'm sorry to tell you," Revolver elaborated. "But the Crystal Exarch you hate so much is dead. There is a new one in his place now."_

_His words broke something inside the boy._

_"A… new… one?" Revolver could hardly hear him speak._

_"Yes," he said, then pointed to the Hanoi Guard's banner flapping in the wind. "See that banner? It's white and red to signify the new Exarch's authority. The old one died, and his banner was once grey and green."_

_All that anger drained out of him quickly, and Fujiki struggled to form words now that he lost his purpose. They both understood the proper customs, so it wasn't like Revolver was telling him lies._

_Unable to come up with anything clever or scathing in return, Fujiki's face went back to its usual scowl and he picked up his sack of fish and bolted out of the market. None of the guards dared pursue him._

_Revolver turned to a still uniformed guard. "You, what do you make of that boy?"_

_"He's not a regular, that's for sure," was his answer._

_"Oh? How far is he from here?"_

_"He lives in the old shacks in Dampsole," the guard explained. "He only stops here for the markets and small hunting post."_

_"So he's a hunter," Revolver surmised. That explained the lance and impeccable fighting skills._

_"Only in his younger summers, and he's been making a name for himself by the sheer amount of bills he's completed," the guard continued. "We never took him seriously until the other hunters talked about him. They say he simply watched the old Voeburtites to get good."_

_He simply watched someone perform the old arts of a dragoon and copied them? Ah, Revolver lamented to himself, another talented fighter slipped his grasp. "Shame. Could have enlisted if he wasn't so… difficult."_

_"Well, you heard him," the guard sighed exasperatedly. "He's got no interest in being part of the Guard. Something to do with calling us dirty cowards and criminals."_

_"Considering the conduct of those here, I'm not surprised," Revolver looked pointedly at the confused, stripped down guards. "What does surprise is how much of a recluse he seems to be, if he's so well knit in the hunting community."_

_"Well, he generally works alone," said the guard. "Only cares about where the marks are, not what's going on abroad."_

_"I see."_

_"If you're worried about what you said, don't be. He'll be back before you know it. Not like that stray has anywhere else to go."_

_Revolver's gaze returned to where Yusaku Fujiki stood his ground against him. He didn't know what to do with the knowledge that fell into his lap, but it was worth keeping tabs on Fujiki, in case anything happened to him. After all, he was the one who made Fujiki the way he was today, and he didn't want more weight on his conscience from now on._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I added this because I didn't think a few paragraphs of exposition was enough, so at least one scene would improve the difficult exposition.


	3. lightwarden

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku and company are confused about what to do with this ghost named Ai, but the discussion gets cuts short because Kusanagi's brother Jin needs to be rescued. They are forced to cooperate with Revolver to be cleared to enter Holminster Switch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've largely given up trying to go full Shakespearean like I'm supposed to for this story, so let's just assume Kusanagi, Takeru, and Ai just speak plain common tongue so that's why they don't sound as prim and proper. Maybe I'll fix it when it's all over.

The needle of the aetherometer spun more wildly than usual over Revolver's usual route over Lakeland. Same as yesterday, he noted. He looked below over his amaro's saddle and sighted the settlement of Holminster Switch. As the second most populated area of the region, the place had always been marked as a potential target for sin eaters looking to feast on whatever aether it could find. But never has the place been shrouded this badly in aether.

Revolver steered the amaro by the cliffs looking out over the settlement and dismounted to inspect the aetherometer on level ground. As expected, this was no trick of the light, but most certainly unusual. At best this aether would attract a swarm, and the worst case scenario would be a Lightwarden.

He fished out his linkpearl.

"Pandor," he called the other side. "I'm detecting a shift in aether around Holminster Switch."

"Is that so?" Pandor answered. "I recall that the settlement is enduring a massive influx of pox, especially among the elderly."

So something was going wrong. If there have been many deaths within the span of a week, that would warrant the unusually high amounts of aether gathering around their quarter of Lakeland. There was only so much the Crystarium could do to offer assistance.

If left alone, Holminster Switch could find itself in ruins by morning. It was far too late to order the hunting clans to update their marks and attract the freelance hunters to the area in case of emergencies. The Hanoi Guard would have to deploy immediately as possible.

"Have the Guard implement precautionary measures as soon as possible," he ordered.

"Very well," said Pandor. "I shall order the watch at Fort Jobb to be especially vigilant. We shall also notify you should any unusual activity occur."

"See to it that you do," Revolver ended the call and was left alone again in the cool air.

If not for the everlasting Light, the stars would be out by now. Even with the glow of the Crystal Tower, one should still have been able to see the Spire in this time of the year. This was all conjecture, however, for his only experience with the night was through astrology manuals, scriptures of the Night's Blessed, and stories from his father and his advisors. He would be lying if he said he didn't miss them, but they all had their duties to perform, and most of them couldn't bear living in the presence of those children.

If he remembered right, the Kusanagis lived in Holminster Switch. From passing conversations with fellow members of the Guard, the younger was under the care of a chirurgeon there, while the elder had taken up hunting with… the other two, Homura and Fujiki, all of them with unusually high records of elite kills. Revolver expected nothing less of them, Fujiki especially. Even without the abilities his father so… kindly provided him, Fujiki would certainly still be a formidable hunter.

He hoped that they were living well, that Fujiki had been living well. On one hand, he simply wanted the best for them, but on the other, he needed them alive as a failsafe. All his and the Hanoi Guard's efforts to find a way to combat the threat of sin eaters once and for all bore no fruit. Only his father had been anywhere close to successful... Up until his own son and the Sol army had ruined those plans.

Were he a lesser man, Revolver could take the surviving subjects back, round them up and shut them in the tower until the time came to serve their purpose, like his father would have done. He already had Spectre and these three right in front of him, and he knew about the rumors that Aqua had managed to escape her gilded cage in Soltis.

But Ryoken Kogami had no right to barge into their lives and demand favors from them after all the trouble they had suffered. Of course, Spectre was already accepting of his fate, but the rest of them would undoubtedly never agree to go so quietly. Leaving the remaining subjects of his father's experiments running free was wasted potential. To save the lives of many, he would have to sacrifice the few.

His amaro nudged him in the arm, telling him he had been standing for far too long under the Light.

"Sorry," he stroked its head. "Let's fly down."

* * *

Yusaku awoke to the sound of a grown man squeaking. He never thought it possible for anyone to make such a sound, but there was always a first time for everything.

"What are you even crying about?" He heard Kusanagi scoff. "Everything goes right through you."

"You've been putting your hand through my head for the past hour, you fiend!" Now this was a voice he didn't recognize.

"I'm trying to get a book behind you. It's just more convenient."

"It's disturbing!"

"Speak for yourself," said Takeru. "Isn't the fact that you're basically a ghost the more disturbing thing?"

Yusaku gauged from the echo of their voices that they were in a small room, probably his room. They must have found him unconscious in the stables and carried him to his bed. He tried moving his fingers and his toes, and to his relief he could feel them, all intact. So he didn't accidentally lob his arm off with one of Takeru's axe heads when he got that headache.

The others must have realized the noise had woken Yusaku up because as soon as he opened his eyes, he saw Kusanagi and Takeru hovering over him like mother hens.

"Yusaku, you're awake! It's been a whole six bells!"

"You okay? Feeling anything weird at all?"

He sat up on his bed and was fixed on the one stranger in his room. The man was Mystel just like himself, but he was far taller and fully decked out in elaborate black and purple armor that complemented his purple and black hair. Everything about him made him stick out like a sore thumb among the rest of them.

"Oh, him?" Kusanagi followed his gaze. "We found him crying and trying to help you from the stable floor."

"We've, er, calmed down for the most part now that you're back," Takeru gave the ghost a look that sent him cowering into the corner of the room. "But not before making sure this guy didn't kill you or anything."

Yusaku looked back at the stranger again. He hadn't move from his place ever since he had gotten up, probably afraid that the other two would harass him again for moving a muscle.

"You're... Ai," Yusaku croaked. He must have been out for a while to sound like this.

The stranger gasped and held his hands to his face.

"You know my name!" Ai exclaimed. "How did you know my name?" [1]

"I..."

Yusaku wasn't sure himself. He could hardly recall anyone in his lifetime named Ai, but this man recognized him the very moment their eyes met. Now what could a strange ghost possibly understand about him?

"All right, let's take step back for a second," Takeru stepped in between Ai and Yusaku, arms folded. "We've been playing nice for a while now until Yusaku woke up. It's about time you talk."

Ai was perplexed. "I- Wait, what am I supposed to say?"

"Who are you?" Yusaku asked, also deeply curious about this ghost. "What are you?"

"He's not fae, that's very clear," Kusanagi pointed a grimoire at him. "I'd have been able to hit him if he was even the tiniest bit of a pixie."

"Please don't remind us of that time with the pixie," Yusaku groaned.

"Gods, no," Takeru shuddered with equal dread. "They liked Yusaku a bit too much and threatened to throw me down a cliff for looking at him too funny."

They could never forget the part where said pixie took Takeru's things and had them strewn all over the woods when Yusaku finally had enough and told it to go away. Since then, neither of them dared to even look in the direction of Il Mheg.

"I'm definitely not fae folk, and especially not a pixie!" Ai shrieked. "They're just the worst! Only Aqua and Earth could ever stand them!"

Yusaku was getting tired of this. "Then who are you?"

"I…" Ai trailed off, ears turning sideways. "I was a man once, an adventurer, too. We used to go traveling throughout Norvrandt together. Before the Flood, that is…"

Even as a ghost, the man's armor gave an audible clink when he slumped in his shoulders.

"I know this is a lot to ask, but could you please help me find out what happened to my friends? It's just that… I've been in such a fog until I met you, and…"

If he was speaking about the Flood as if it were a recent event, this man must have died almost a full century ago, Yusaku deduced, instantly feeling pity for him.

"You realize how much time has passed since the Flood?" Yusaku asked. "It's been a hundred years. There's not many people left who still live from that time."

"I’m… aware of that," Ai choked. "But my friends… they told me there was something I had to do. Why else would I remain here as a shade?"

"You mean to say that you won't go away until you find peace?" Kusanagi rubbed at his jaw in thought. "And you've forgotten how to do that?"

"I just know it was important!" the ghost seethed. "It had something to do with stopping the Flood! If I could… go back to where we all perished and have you use your… bond… with me, we could figure out what I had to do and-"

The sound of a distant bugle rang out outside, and the door to Yusaku's bedroom burst open. Everyone's head snapped around to Kiku, who was leaning onto the door from running so fast up the stairs.

"The alarm!" Kiku panted. "It's from Holminster Switch! They've been overrun!"

Kusanagi turned white as a sheet. So did Yusaku.

"Jin's there," Yusaku said under his breath.

"Oh, hells," Takeru breathed, and he began scrambling for the pair of katars he had left on Yusaku's desk. He took the key to the weapons shed and tossed it over to Yusaku, who caught it deftly and made a beeline for his cuirass hanging off of his chair. Meanwhile, Ai, stood back, unsure as to what he could say.

"Is there anything-"

"No," Kusanagi cut him off soundly. "You probably don't even know the place."

"Of course I do!" Ai cried. "I used to live in Holminster Switch!"

The older man froze mid-step and looked back at him, but Yusaku wasn't having any of this. Now wasn't the time to hear life stories from a shade, of all things. They needed to fly north as fast as they could.

"We'll deal with you after we get Jin back," Yusaku commanded him. "Unless your form can only be sustained in my presence."

"I'll get bored if I stay here, so I'm going," Ai shrugged, and Yusaku gave one long-suffering sigh. This was at least better than the pixie.

"Yusaku," Kusanagi said warningly. "We can't have him coming along on an emergency."

"Don't worry about me, o healer," Ai wagged a teasing finger at me. "I can't touch anything, and if you can't touch me, nothing ever will. I'll see myself out if anything crazy happens, however."

With a quick flourish, he performed a bow, and before anyone could blink, he was suddenly no longer there.

"See?"

Ai's voice came up right behind him, and Yusaku spun around to see the ghost grinning down at him.

"All right, he can come with us," An unimpressed Takeru sighed and knocked on the door to get their attention. "But if he tries anything, Yusaku, just say the word and he's gone."

Yusaku would not forget the sheer look of terror on Ai's face at that last remark before he went out again with a pop.

* * *

♬ | To Fire and Sword - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JeYATGs70Ss) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

As they expected, the gates to Holminster were closed off, and the Hanoi Guard were already on the scene carrying out their orders. Villagers who managed to escape in time were being escorted to wagons for shelter in the Crystarium later. Yusaku noted that no one, soldier or not, was lining up to enter the gates. The situation must be especially bad, then.

"Why do you not let us pass?!" Kusanagi was bargaining with the nearby guard. "I'm a resident of Holminster, godsdamnit!"

"I'm sorry, sir," the intimidated guard backed away. "But the captain of the Guard has ordered us to-"

"My brother is in there!" Kusanagi roared. "How can you shut the gates like that?! Are you trying to let everyone die in there?"

"We're hunters, too!" Takeru joined in. "We can kill sin eaters just as well as the rest of you!"

Yusaku stood back and let the other two argue their way in and observed the rest of the Hanoi Guard watching this all go down in interest. These soldiers recognized them, most likely from their startling record of good hunts or their weekly run-ins with Revolver. He could feel their expectant gazes on him and his party, wondering if they could be done with this entire business sooner if they gave these three hunters entry. Perhaps Yusaku should step in if either Takeru or Kusanagi resorted to fists.

"And what seems to be the matter here?"

Everyone's attention turned to an amused Drahn man in white. He must be so delighted that they were having a difficult time under that visor of his. Yusaku has knocked the damn thing off his face enough times to know.

"Revolver," Kusanagi didn't hide the snarl in his voice. "I need permission to find my brother? What is the meaning of this?"

"If you hadn't been listening," Revolver all but sneered. "Holminster Switch is under lockdown, and we're containing the threat so the sin eaters won't escape and go after the Crystarium next."

"With survivors inside?!" Kusanagi marched up to him, trying to use whatever little height he had over him as a threat. "Why didn't Hanoi see this coming beforehand and evacuate everyone on time?"

"A miscalculation on our part, yes," Revolver admitted coolly. "But even though we predicted sin eaters would come, we didn't expect them to come out in such high numbers in such a sport span of time. It just so happens that they were following a Lightwarden."

"A Lightwarden?" Yusaku finally spoke up, sensing that the man brought this up just to catch his attention in particular. He's never encountered one, but he's read enough old records about them in the Cabinet of Curiosity to know how that would pose a problem. As the beings at the top of the sin eater hierarchy, a Lightwarden radiated concentrated aether and attracted lesser sin eaters with their overwhelming Light. When slain, another would rise up from the relinquished aether along with every living being in its reach. No man within a ten malm radius could withstand that. Of course, that wasn't going to stop Kusanagi.

"I don't care if it's a Lightwarden," He growled. "We're finding a way in whether you like it or not."

The smile on the Revolver's face tightened into a thin angry line. "Kusanagi, several teams have been sent inside and still haven't returned. I will not add more fodder to the eaters by wasting soldiers on a rescue mission for just one person, let alone expend resources protecting three more people."

"We have every reason to be allowed in," Yusaku jumped in, to Revolver's dismay.

"Fujiki-"

"I can list three reasons why," he didn't skip a beat. "First, Jin is a valuable subject to you and your ilk. He may not be any much of a fighter like us, but he is fully capable of resisting a sin eater's touch. Losing him would be detrimental to your cause, for reasons I won't disclose in the open here, but you know why.

He heard Revolver make an odd sound in his throat, but pressed on anyway.

"Second, Takeru and I will be going with Kusanagi to find his brother. Whatever amount of Light that Lightwarden had, I wouldn't doubt that it would cause us any harm. The first Exarch made sure of that ten years ago."

"And third, the reputation of the Hanoi Guard is at stake here. Last I recall, the first Crystal Exarch and the second one declared you defenders of Lakeland. If you were planning to maintain the morale of your own people, perhaps leaving an entire allied town to die would not be the best course of action. How would your Exarch feel about that?"

Yusaku watched Revolver deflate little by little over every point he made so far up until the last part where he clenched his fists. This was something Yusaku picked up from dealing with this man for years: Revolver always had something of a soft spot for the current Exarch. If the Exarch was who Yusaku thought he was, he could easily picture Revolver going tame and more polite in his superior's presence.

"Unless you have any other good ideas," Kusanagi backed Yusaku up. "We're going, whether you like it or not."

Right behind them, Takeru mashed his fists together, probably raring for a good fight, too. Revolver studied their determined expressions with a heaving sigh.

"We're sending one more party in," he conceded. "Our objective will focus primarily on keeping that lightwarden at bay, and the three of you are allowed entry."

Despite all his faults, Revolver still had some honor in him.

"Under one condition," Leave it to Revolver to kill any good news. "I shall have to accompany you. It's my responsibility as a member of the Hanoi Guard to ensure the safety of our people. I will take the lead of course."

Yusaku begrudgingly agreed with a nod. He wasn't going to enjoy being told what to do by Revolver of all people, but if this was what they needed to do to go in and save Jin and the others, he will endure it.

Kusanagi took a heaving sigh and cracked open a page of his codex. The faerie that sprang out of the air beside him giggled playfully at the prospect of bloodshed. Kusanagi rolled his shoulders to bear the weight of Yusaku's old greatsword strapped across his back. They had debated earlier on which weapon Yusaku should bring with him. In the end, Yusaku brought along the lance, and Kusanagi agreed to hold onto the sword in the situation Yusaku needed it over the lance.

"You best look alive, then," Kusanagi said as he turned to the next page for healing spells. "Because we're on our own out there."

"We're ready to head out," Takeru chimed in and gave Revolver a daring look. "Ready whenever you are."

Revolver checked his stock of rounds strapped across his waist, and turned to face the gate to Holminster Switch.

"Throw wide the gates for us!" he shouted to the soldiers standing above them.

The Hanoi Guard posted nearby gawked at him as if he had grown three heads, but they couldn’t say no to their own leader, and they raised the lever to open only a small gap. As soon as the party slipped through, the soldiers quickly moved to shut the gate behind them. Yusaku could hear one of the more friendly guards shout some encouraging words of good luck to them, but he couldn't tell if they were directed at him or Revolver.

"Let's be quick," he said to the rest of the party, and together they ran across the beaten path into the woods.

The first sin eater they came across was hunched several pale, feathered cocoons that must have been wild animals or fleeing villagers. It spread its wings and raised its imitation of a sword and shield to give reverence to the everlasting sun, too absorbed in its ritual to notice the party of hunters closing in on it.

Just as they had come within a few yalms of it, the cocoons the eater had been nursing burst open. The animals that had been caught in it emerged from these otherworldly husks with a lumbering grace. Their fur had turned a bleached alabaster much like the creature that made them so. This was a mob not meant to be fought alone.

Yusaku burst upwards to a good few yalms over and above the animals and came hurtling down on the sin eater's eye. He twisted and planted his feet on the side of the neck then promptly jumped away. Just as he bounded backwards, a shot breezed right past him and hit the eater square in the chest. The monster screamed and clawed at its face, and the hunter landed behind Revolver holding out his bayonet and sent him a dirty look.

"Well?" He didn't seem at all perturbed at the possibility of nearly killing a teammate. "You wanted to be quick."

"Adequate," was all Yusaku could say.

"I'm elated to hear you're pleased with my performance," Revolver smiled. "Perhaps we should go hunting together."

If Yusaku put away his justified hatred for the man, he would have agreed. They would make a scarily efficient pair.

"Let's just hurry and find Jin," he grumbled and twirled his lance into the next stance.

* * *

The state of the settlement beyond the woods should not have surprised anyone in the party, but Yusaku still found the sight of devastation a haunting experience. The fields that were once the pride of Holminster Switch were up in flames and poisoning the air with smoke. The road was littered with cocoons of newly converted sin eaters, with the occasional corpse scattered between them.

The teams of Hanoi Guard that Revolver had said he sent in weren't all entirely dead or converted as he had feared, but very few of them had claimed to have seen the Lightwarden or any of the chirurgeons. Once in a while, they found a fleeing villager who had conflicting reports. Revolver had deemed them too distraught to pull aside for questioning and instead directed them to the road behind them where someone from the Hanoi Guard could receive them. The hope that Kusanagi's brother had survived the attack was dwindling just a little.

The four of them ventured further into the town to the courtyard where they spotted the telltale glow of a magic barrier in the corner. The sight of that unmistakable mop of purple hair had Kusanagi running past Revolver, who said nothing out of courtesy.

"Jin!" [2]

One of the villagers maintaining the barrier turned around, but the sudden lapse in concentration weakened the barrier he made. One lucky sin eater rammed through and made a beeline for him and the villagers cowering behind him. Revolver held his bayonet out to empty his barrel on the mob of eaters descending on the villagers. As the creatures dispersed, Yusaku and Takeru charged forth to make quick work of each and every one of them.

As soon as Revolver signaled to them that the coast was clear, Kusanagi abandoned all restraint and flung his arms around a young man cradled by one of the villagers. The boy stared on ahead, not even visibly taking notice of his own brother holding him, but Yusaku could spot the quivering of his fingers. Jin scarcely said anything or moved without considerable assistance, but all these years, he could still recognize his brother's presence.

"Kusanagi!" A woman in scholar's robes approached them. "You came!"

"We didn't know if you were alive or not," Kusanagi looked up at her, hands still full of his little brother. "How's Jin?"

"His condition is stable," the chirurgeon replied. "We were worried that the influx of aether would affect him, but… he's surprisingly resilient. Not a single word from him."

Kusanagi nodded in understanding and looked back to his little brother's blank eyes. Yusaku saw Revolver looked away in discomfort at the scene. How unusual, he mused. A member of the Hanoi Guard like himself should be accustomed to seeing swathes of afflicted patients. Perhaps he felt some personal responsibility on behalf of the Crystal Exarch, who likely told him of the incident that made Jin this way.

"We can't stay in one place for too long," said Takeru as he helped the other villagers up. "Are you armed?"

"I… grabbed the nearest codex in our shop on the way out," The chirurgeon motioned to the tattered book hooked to her belt. "I should be able to keep the others safe on the way out."

"We saw it!" One of the villagers blurted out. "It was a huge eater! Big and white and by the mayor's barn!"

So they must have run into the Lightwarden already, Yusaku noted. He hoped these people won't be considered afflicted by the Guard for simply walking in proximity of the creature.

"We've cleared the way back while we came to rescue you," Revolver instructed the chirurgeon and the rest of the villagers. "Stay together and take the usual route. The Hanoi Guard will guide you out."

"I'll keep that in mind," the woman nodded and he followed the rest of the small crowd down the road Yusaku and company came from. As they kept watch on the villagers entering the woods, an earthquake rocked the ground. Yusaku looked to the woods on the other side of Holminster Switch where a flock of birds were taking to the skies. It looked like they found their mark.

* * *

♬ | Insatiable - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aKHUcCQ65mg) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

The Lightwarden cried once more as Takeru landed a clean rain of punches on its side while Revolver bore the brunt of its blows [3]. Taking advantage of the opening, Yusaku dove for the creature's neck and pierced it as well as he could, then leapt back again. He landed smoothly onto the ground on its flank. If he could place a good hit here, it would certainly-

"Yusaku!"

Before Yusaku could blink, some part of the eater smashed into the side of his body with enough force to go airborne above the cottages. He could hardly hear the alarmed shouts of his teammates over the sound of wind rushing past him and the pounding in his head from the impact. At the very least, the shielding spell lessened the pain wracking his body.

He tucked inwardly to lessen the impact of his fall when he hit the side of a building and tumbled down the roof into a bed of flowers. Kusanagi's fey blessings were fading and the inevitable pain in his entire body returned with a vengeance. If Yusaku wasn't in the middle of something urgent, he would have gladly lay in this patch of grass and never get back up again.

"I see you're faring quite well," Ai deadpanned. "What is it with you dragoons and jumping around so needlessly high?"

Yusaku groaned and planted his lance into the ground to prop himself up. This really wasn't the time for any kind of banter. "And what have you been doing all this time?"

"Hiding so as to not distract you!" The ghost pouted. "Excuse me for being considerate!"

The lance gave way, and Yusaku looked down to inspect it. The shaft was splintered at the part where the Lightwarden had thrown its tail at him. It looked like he was going to have to use that old sword after all.

"I haven't really been watching all that much until you got that hit," The older Mystel eyed the Lightwarden rampaging two cottages away from them. "Ooh, that's a big one. What are you doing so close to something like that?"

"Couldn't you tell?" Yusaku let out an exasperated sigh. "I'm trying to kill it."

Ai did a double take. "What? Are you insane? I-"

The shade relented and stared down at him pitifully.

"You do realize your aether is in horrible shape, do you?"

Uncontrollable coughing forced Yusaku back to his knees again. As a matter of fact, yes, he knew the sorry state he was in if anyone could see it. Any combat or dabbling in aetherial arts should have been out of the question ever since he was found ten years ago. But he would do anything, anything to fight against the force of cruel nature that were sin eaters, so long as he had the means to fight them.

The knight read his expression and backed off with the understanding that he couldn't do anything to stop this madness. He turned his sights back on the ongoing fight instead.

"If you keep on this fight any longer, your friends are going to die from all this Light, especially that redhead," Ai observed. "None of them have resistance to sin eaters like you and that pugilist over there."

Revolver was no friend. Yusaku wanted to correct him, but the boy was too busy coughing to say anything other than an irritated grunt. Now the droplets of blood he just spit out were especially concerning. He needed to hurry back to Kusanagi for his other weapon and some emergency healing. His legs were not working as well as he would like, so perhaps he'd need to handspring…

"Hey, let me try something," said Ai. Yusaku wanted to refuse his help, but a part of his mind urged him to hear him out.

Much like Ai's name, Yusaku couldn't remember where this technique came from or what he was doing. His hand moved on his own and reached to his chest, drawing a considerable amount of aether. Facing Ai, he spilled it out of his hand, letting the aether take the form of water that pooled around his and the ghost's feet. The puddle of deep purple reacted to Ai's presence, clinging to his boots then crawling up his entire body. In mere seconds, he was coated entirely in pitch black, and the only thing that remained were the glowing purple outlines of his armor and his eyes. [4]

Ai, or what appeared to be Ai, held out his hand to touch Yusaku's, and sure enough, they made actual contact. Yusaku gasped in alarm, but Ai was delighted by the development. Never in his life was he able to manifest aether so masterfully without a great deal of subsequent illness. But how?

"Praise the gods, it worked!" he cackled. "And Flame only said it was a theory!"

Yusaku pointed the sharper half of his lance at the knight's throat. "What did you make me do?"

"Easy, there!" Ai defended himself. "I just suggested that you try to use your aether to do some magic, like how you usually do with that sword! Nothing special! But I can fight now!"

Having an additional person in this fight was an unexpected advantage, that was true. But he wasn't sure how this was going to help him get back in the fight.

As if Ai could read his thoughts, the knight conjured a greatsword much like Yusaku's and, with a flourish, planted the blade onto the ground to create a ramp.

"Just jump. I'll be with you before you know it."

There was little time to debate on whether to trust Ai or not. Yusaku breathed deep and charged onto Ai's sword and with every ounce of strength he had left in him, sprang off into the air once more. He caught sight of the Lightwarden continuing its assault on the rest of his party, but its movements were getting sluggish and more desperate.

He twisted to readjust his descent, using one half of the broken shaft to shield himself and the other half to tear through the Lightwarden's tail. He supposed this counted as revenge for earlier.

"Yusaku!" Kusanagi shouted over the creature's deafening screams. As expected he recasted his shielding spells onto Yusaku, and his bones was feeling only slightly less broken. Takeru pulled him out of the way of one of the sin eater's flailing talons.

"You're back," he steadied Yusaku on his feet. "We were worried you were really dead because of how hard that eater hit you!"

The eater took another swipe at them, but Takeru stepped around him and punched its hand away. Some well placed bullets in the same hand turned its attentions onto Revolver trying to draw it away from them.

"I'm fine," he said, and Takeru understood this as a cue to not mind him and continue fighting. His teammate threw himself back into the fray, and Yusaku took a second to gather his bearings.

Without the tail, the sin eater was no longer as big of a threat, but its legs were still functioning well enough to upend the ground around it. For the past few hours, Yusaku and Takeru had been aiming to decapitate it or blow a hole in its chest. Thanks to their good work, it looked like one more well placed blow would surely finish it.

Something set his ears on edge when he looked up and saw a fireball of aether coming down on him. He was ready to jump out of the way, but a shadowy figure landed before him and shielded him from most of the attack.

"I told you I'd be right with you, didn't I?"

For a moment, Yusaku forgot about the pitch black form that Ai had turned into. He let go of the less useful half of his lance and pointed at a spot on the ground right below its chin. The only way he was getting there was if he was willing to get pelted by boulders. Unless…

"Over there," he explained. "Protect me while I get under it."

The ghost huffed indignantly at getting ordered around, but nevertheless, he obeyed and kept up with Yusaku as he weaved around the mess that was the eater's limbs and the unstable ground. To their luck, the Lightwarden raised its legs on its right side in unison in preparation to level half of the clearing. While Ai was helpfully keeping the boulders and aether from hitting him, Yusaku locked eyes with Kusanagi. The man had the good foresight to have the old greatsword out of its bindings. Yusaku held out his hands.

"Now!" He shouted at his teammate, who threw his sword across the ground, beneath the eater's feet, and right to Yusaku.

He caught the handle and swung skyward, uncontrolled aether blowing a hole clean through the Lightwarden. The sin eater screamed all the way to its death, crashing to the ground. Behind him, the accompanying soldiers were already making a run for it, not wishing to be anywhere near the corpse.

Within seconds, portions of the eater's body began to break apart, releasing aether into the air around. Oddly enough, the aether clustered above where the creature's head should have been and began edging towards the closest person, namely Yusaku.

He took a few steps back, but the light followed him until it settled into his chest and out of sight. The hunter clutched at the part of his body he saw the light made contact with, checking if it burned him, but there was nothing. Whatever pain Yusaku was feeling in his gut had already been there before he interacted at all with the Lightwarden's light.

"Everyone, look!"

He spun around to his party, but no one was looking at him or even questioning what he had just experienced. Not even Ai, who was standing around in broad daylight like he wasn't some apparition, paid any attention to him. Instead, they were all focused on something in the sky. He took a look for himself and was instantly taken aback.

Yusaku's fatal swing had appeared to do more than defeat a Lightwarden. A black chasm ran down the whole length of the sky and brought the world to a standstill. With every passing second, the gap grew pushing the Light away in both directions like parting curtains. Soon, the only Light left were the tiny specks scattered across the sunless sea. It was like a whole different world had opened up before them.

"The night," Takeru whispered. "It's returned."

"Gods..." Even Revolver was breathless. "So the stories were true."

Yusaku couldn't help but admire the returned skies himself. If this was how they felt about the return of the night, he could imagine the entire Crystarium coming to a halt so everyone could marvel at the heavens. Not once in their lives had they seen the beauty of the night outside of archived writings and paintings. All those years of enduring their losses suddenly felt all the more worth it, even if it was just a few seconds.

"The Warrior of Darkness!" A child likely gasped in awe. "They're finally here!"

* * *

1 I originally was going to give Yusaku the Echo (FFXIV's way of letting the player diegetically see flashbacks of the past), but realized that would cause a lot of problems plotwise by the time I finalized the plot, so I wrote it out. All flashbacks will now be non-diegetic because no one has seen a therapist.

2 I had been pretty conflicted about whether or not to axe Jin because I didn't really know what to do with him if he were alive. I could have made this sadder by having Jin be turned into a sin eater for an example, but… that's too cruel. So, he's not really axed per se but he's put on the side lines to so he can freak out when Yusaku and company get wrecked saving the world.

11/24/19: I've changed my mind and decided Jin is temporarily benched. This is to demonstrate early for the reader to understand what being afflicted is.

3 I'm not writing full boss fights or dungeon runs because let's face it, we all came here for the emotions and angst, not dungeon shenanigans like someone accidentally pulling a mob and taking the whole team down. Maybe I'll write some if it's especially short or important.

4 Living Shadow is an endgame DRK skill, but Yusaku mains as a DRK and does DRG on the side, so I'm just going to let him mix skills because that's not really important.

* * *

The following are portions of certain scenes of this chapter prior to major revisions.

* * *

The state of the settlement beyond the woods should not have surprised anyone in the party, but Yusaku still found the sight of devastation a haunting experience. The fields that were once the pride of Holminster Switch were up in flames and poisoning the air with smoke. The road was littered with cocoons of newly converted sin eaters, with the occasional corpse scattered between them.

The teams of Hanoi Guard that Revolver had said he sent in weren't all entirely dead or converted as he had feared, but very few of them had claimed to have seen the Lightwarden or any of the chirurgeons. Once in a while, they found a fleeing villager who had conflicting reports. Revolver had deemed them too distraught to pull aside for questioning and instead directed them to the road behind them where someone from the Hanoi Guard could receive them. The hope that Kusanagi's brother had survived the attack was dwindling just a little.

The four of them ventured further into the town to the courtyard where they spotted the telltale glow of a magic barrier in the corner. The sight of that unmistakable mop of purple hair had Kusanagi running past Revolver, who said nothing out of courtesy.

"Jin!" [2]

The young man turned around, but the sudden lapse in concentration weakened the barrier he was maintaining. One lucky sin eater rammed through and made a beeline for him and the villagers cowering behind him. Revolver held his bayonet out to empty his barrel on the mob of eaters descending on the villagers. As the creatures dispersed, Yusaku and Takeru charged forth to make quick work of each and every one of them.

As soon as Revolver signaled to them that the coast was clear, Kusanagi abandoned all restraint and flung his arms around his little brother, who staggered at the crushing weight.

"Brother!" Jin patted him on the back to get him to stop squeezing the life out of him. "You came!"

"We didn't know if you were alive or not," Kusanagi fretted over the scrapes on his brother's face. "But if it weren't for Yusaku persuading the Guard to let us in, you might have been a goner."

Jin and Yusaku exchanged glances and nodded in acknowledgement of each other. They could give their proper thanks later.

"We can't stay in one place for too long," said Takeru as he helped the other villagers up. "Are you armed?"

"I… grabbed the nearest codex in our shop on the way out," Jin motioned to the tattered book hooked to his belt. "I should be able to keep the others safe on the way out."

"We saw it!" One of the villagers blurted out. "It was a huge eater! Big and white and by the mayor's barn!"

So they must have run into the Lightwarden already, Yusaku noted. He hoped these people won't be considered afflicted by the Guard for simply walking in proximity of the creature.

"We've cleared the way back while we came to rescue you," Revolver instructed Jin and the rest of the villagers. "Stay together and take the usual route. The Hanoi Guard will guide you out."

"I'll keep that in mind," the boy nodded and he followed the rest of the small crowd down the road Yusaku and company came from. As they kept watch on the villagers entering the woods, an earthquake rocked the ground. Yusaku looked to the woods on the other side of Holminster Switch where a flock of birds were taking to the skies. It looked like they found their mark.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I love Yusaku assuming that Revolver and Ryoken are two different people and considering Revolver as his rival because… the drama. He also doesn't have good DPS etiquette bc he's always been tanking his entire life.


	4. still tides

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> With the big boss of Holminster Switch defeated, Yusaku and company restored night to Lakeland, but Revolver is not happy that Ai is on their side because he's an Ignis. Consequently, Revolver keeps Yusaku away from the public for his supposed safety. Aoi performs her usual duties as Blue Angel in Soltis and wonders where Aqua has gone.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Still here? Cool, time for exposition and some Datastormshipping as a reward for sitting through some worldbuilding. Also I keep forgetting Yusaku is a scrawny catboy in this fic. Also, official names for the tracks are out, so I've fixed them accordingly. They're such nice names...

Yusaku had been worried the world would be entirely dark, but the moon and the stars more than made up for the absence of everlasting light.

"By the gods…" Kusanagi was still staring up ahead in awe. "I've never seen a sky so… so…"

Meanwhile, the relief washed out from Yusaku as he leaned on his sword for support, only to be nearly sent tipping over into the ground instead. Like Kusanagi had warned him, his sword was in utter ruins, the cracks running deeper from that last time he carelessly drowned it in aether through it to cut through the Warden. With the other lance equally useless, he was definitely visiting the Mean, whether he liked it or not.

More importantly, he hadn't felt this euphoric before. Yusaku was certainly running from the high that came from using the dark arts, but he didn't dislike this feeling. His aether had never felt so put together before. He could almost feel like the way he did before that day…

"We did it!"

Ai was ecstatic. The dark black shell that had given him solid form had melted off of him moments ago, but the man didn't care. He ran circles around Yusaku, even around Takeru after a few rounds while repeatedly throwing his hands up at the moon and the stars.

"Can you believe it, Yusakuuu!?"

The shade tried to fling his arms around Yusaku, but his arms went right through the boy again. So it seemed that form of his didn't last very long, not that Yusaku found the idea of a corporeal mess of Mystel running around enticing. Realizing his mistake, Ai pulled away, a miserable smile tugging at his lips.

"I guess that was just too good to last," he mumbled, ears falling back.

Before Yusaku could ask about what Ai had done to help him, a warning shot whizzed past his head and grazed Yusaku on the cheek. If Ai had been a normal, living person, that shot would have been the end of him.

Revolver didn't lower his culverin and looked well ready to attempt another shot through Ai's skull.

"You," his voice dripped with venom. "You have some nerve to come all this way."

"I came to help, and this is how you treat me?" Ai cried indignantly. "Some friend you are!"

Another shot, and Ai squawked.

"You are sorely mistaken," Revolver snarled. "No enemy of humanity is a friend of mine, Ignis."

The name came as a surprise to Yusaku as he limped out of the way from behind Ai, not wishing to risk a bullet. The Ignis, the warriors of legend who betrayed humanity and brought about the Flood of Light one whole century ago, still walked? Moreover, this ghost, standing before him, was an Ignis? Perhaps he should have seen this coming after all the unusual things that have happened in the last two days. For what it was worth, Ai's stupefied expression only confirmed Revolver's accusation.

"If you and the rest of your kind are still out there, then you have information that the Hanoi needs to know," Revolver approached them menacingly, but Ai stood his ground for once, hand instinctively reaching for the long sword from his back. Yusaku thought he was bearing too much confidence, even for a ghost. No bullet, aether ridden or not, could harm him.

"Ooh, an invitation?" Ai waved at the gun aimed at him. "How about you put your fancy toys away first? Because I'm not telling you anything until you do."

Revolver must have anticipated this because soon, he changed tactics. He retrieved a thin, pure white crystal from the inner folds of his coat. He tossed it above his head and let it fall freely in line with the barrel of his culverin and took another shot at Ai.

The combination of the now shattered crystal and the gunshot formed a thin white streak and lodged itself into one of Ai's knees. The man howled and keeled over on all fours. Yusaku went slack-jawed at the sight of a ghost bleeding from his own legs, even more so at the white bullet he had loaded into his gun. Just how did Revolver make something with such a conversation of aether to hurt Ai?

"Pure… solid aether, huh…?" Ai ground out in between breaths. "That's some… costly stuff…"

"You think we hadn't prepared for the likes of you these past hundred years?" Revolver didn't hesitate to take another of those white crystals out as a second threat. "You might as well give up. Even if you run, we will find you."

"I didn't come out here to challenge you," Ai slowly got back up and heavily leaned on his uninjured leg. "And honestly, I couldn't help you find the others because that's what I've been doing, too."

"So you're protecting them?" Revolver scowled. "Do you then admit that you were complicit in causing the Flood of Light? If so, then the Hanoi Guard cannot allow you to run free."

"And what will you do to the kid?" Ai pointed at Yusaku. "You're going to take him too?"

"If he has any connection to you, then of course we have to," Revolver said without any hesitation. "We'll have to know how your presence has affected him."

Yusaku's blood ran cold at the Drahn's words. The suggestion of the hands of many chirurgeons swarming over him brought back unwanted memories.

"Hey!"

Revolver had to take his eyes off of them as Takeru barreled straight at him. The Drahn leapt out of the way and narrowly missed being smashed into a small crater. Takeru followed up with another well aimed punch, but Revolver saw this coming and batted away the raised fist with the butt of his gun and landed a well placed roundhouse to Takeru's gut.

Takeru stumbled back and rebounded easily, jumping back at Revolver again, but Revolver fended him off. Kusanagi took advantage of the distraction to run to Yusaku's side.

"We need to leave," He slung Yusaku's arm over his shoulder and made their way to leave. Their nearest exit was a pile of rubble and uprooted trees, but at this point they didn't have much choice. Yusaku didn't think Kusanagi for all his strength could climb and carry him at the same time.

"I can move a little," he nudged Kusanagi's support off and hoisted himself onto a slab of cut stone, but the man still had a hand pressed against his back to keep him from falling over. They took a few steps and looked back to see how Ai and Takeru were faring.

From what they could tell, Ai was doing most of the work distracting Revolver now, and Takeru was abandoning the fight to join them. He didn't get very far when Revolver noticed them attempting to climb over a felled tree. The moment his aim budged away from Ai, the shade turned furious.

"Leave them alone!" the shade roared, and the power of his voice produced a devastating pulse through the ruined settlement.

Pain seized Yusaku in his chest, and his feet slipped out from under him. The aether inside him cracked and clashed against the rest of his body, tearing at his muscles and skin. Yusaku's hands let go of the rock and went straight for his heart, taking Takeru with him to the ground. From the edge of his vision, Kusanagi shouted for him and was visibly debating whether to come to his aid or Takeru's.

Yusaku knew this pain all too well, the sensation of something ripping the life out of him but not quite enough to kill him. The burning in his head and heart brought Yusaku back to the decade old memory of blue crystalline walls and corrupted aether coursing through his body. Perhaps before then, the aether reserves in him were normal, unfragmented, but he could hardly remember such a time.

He cursed the Crystal Tower as he faded out.

* * *

♬ | Unmatching Pieces - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=22yHj8KpksQ) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

The spray of sparks and flowers bloomed in the air above the makeshift stage, wowing the audience watching the audience. Blue Angel flashed a dashing smile and gave a twirl, catching her rapier while the children gasped in awe at her skill. Her ankles were aching, but in a few seconds this routine would be over, so she bore with it.

Her finishing combination of flashy little fireballs solicited a standing applause, with a few hoots and hollers. Relieved to be done with the tiresome routine, Blue Angel retreated down to the side of the stage where a mousy haired woman clapped fanatically for her.

"That was an excellent performance!" Hayami beamed, and then handed Aoi a sack of meol and a small piece of parchment. "We'll begin the lottery in a few seconds. Here's what we're asking for today."

She wanted to request another few minutes, but the woman hurried away to order the lingering Sol soldiers. Aoi took a deep sigh and returned up the stage, the large sack of meol dragging behind her.

It had been a mere mistake, honestly. At first, Aoi had snuck out in a glamour with blue hair to throw her brother's colleagues off her trail. When she was caught saving a few villagers from a sin eater, somehow the name "Blue Angel" stuck because she resembled the Oracle of legend. She had been in too much of a hurry to bother correcting them then. When she recounted the story to Aqua, the true Oracle, the girl laughed in amusement, even urged her to keep the name.

The Blue Angel she embodied was, of course, a total lie, but that hardly mattered to the denizens of Gatetown, who have likely never once stepped foot through the gilded gates of Soltis. Even if they made it through immigration, these people would never have the chance to see the real Oracle anyways. The only reason she knew Aqua was because of her brother's role as adjutant to the famed general of Sol.

"Many thanks for all of you who have come to see me," she began with a well practiced flourish. "The city state of Soltis extends its warmest regards!"

While the crowd welcomed her return, Aoi looked down at the note Hayami had left with her. The woman had been more rushed today, so her scrawls were less legible than usual. A culinarian, she made out some of the words, Lady of Chaunteau.

"We shall now begin the lottery!" Blue Angel smiled brightly. "Let it be known that a lady of distinction wishes to dine on fish divine!

"We seek a master culinarian who can guarantee seafood perfection! Dazzle the matron with your delicious dishes, and life in the city will be yours to enjoy!"

These days, with her brother and the Sol army aware of her reputation, Blue Angel had been tasked with many duties in collaboration with Soltis's immigration services, namely, performing and conducting this lottery for regular admission. Soltis was a grand city that granted its citizens only the highest level of security away from the threat of sin eaters, but such a luxury came at the price of limited populations.

Since years before Aoi or even her brother had been born, one former mayor of Soltis had moved to restrict the influx of new citizens. Here in Gatetown was a sprawling camping grounds of many refugees vying to have even just a chance to get a taste of this paradise. So they waited many summers and moons in there crudely constructed huts made of driftwood, just waiting for their big break.

This most certainly ate out a good portion of Aoi's time to go outside to go hunting for notorious monsters and sin eaters, but when Aoi started to see the benefits of instilling hope and morale in the people of Kholusia, she relented and continued to play her part.

As she watched the audience before her, Aoi understood their desperation. Years ago, she, too, had once lived out here in squalor with her brother, and like them, she and her brother had somehow won the lottery when she was only ten summers old. They were lucky to have made it in together, for Akira's employer, the very Queen herself, had taken pity on Aoi and provided for both of them, even giving them the status of free citizens. If she and her brother had to play the game of luck to get in, it was only fair that the others had to enter Soltis the same way.

"Who among you might answer the call?" she prompted her audience. "You may name yourself or another!"

A general hum rose from the crowd as they considered amongst themselves if they could fit that description well. After a few moments, only one woman stepped out before the stage to present herself to Aoi. She seemed confident in her choice to come out, but she had to be certified first.

Hayami scurried out to the woman, and after a flurry of questions and inquiries for some certification, Aoi received a thumbs up.

"Oh, what a catch!" she declared, raising her rapier out to shower the woman in flowers. "The gates of Soltis welcome you with open arms! Come join us in the City of Final Pleasures!"

The woman's gaunt, tired face brightened considerably at the news, and the rest of the refugees around her rejoiced at her good fortune.

"Thank you, Blue Angel!" She shouted to her above the cheers. "I will never forget your kindness!"

Blue Angel returned the smile, even blowing a kiss in her direction as Hayami ushered the woman out of the crowd and up the steps where she was to be processed with an immigration agent. Meanwhile she returned to the rest of the audience waiting expectantly for her next duty of the day.

"To celebrate our newest resident," Aoi hefted the sack Hayami had given her earlier. "I, Blue Angel, have brought along this extra share of meol!"

Excited over the prospect of food, the people of Gatetown scrambled into an orderly line as instructed by the supervising guards.

Aoi reached into her bag and took out a piece of meol. On the surface, meol resembled an wheat bun drained of all its color, but one bite would prove that it was much more dense and more nutritious than simply bread. While the free citizens of Soltis didn't care for the food, citing its unappealing color, the bonded citizens and refugees down in Gatetown craved for meol. Thankfully, meol was inexpensive to make, since the only other person who loved these things was the mayor himself.

Aoi herself had eaten a few pieces once when she lived down here in the slums, but she easily grew bored of it, at some point even found it too sweet. Her brother had been of same mind and resorted to working at the dying fisheries down by the beaches for leftovers. Neither of them desired to starve, but they simply didn't share the same tastes as the others.

"Look at the two of us," she remembered him chuckling over their stew. "Such picky eaters, even after we were expelled from paradise."

It had been years since her brother had shown a genuine smile since then when times were far simpler. Life among the free citizens in Soltis was dreadfully boring, and the only company she could stand to be around was Aqua. But now even her greatest companion was gone to gods know where, without even telling Aoi or even offering her to come along. Aoi felt a pang of bitterness towards everyone involved, but even as the Blue Angel's imposter, she had little power in the grand scheme of things.

Blue Angel finished her business nodding and batting her eyes at every word of praise sent in her direction and plea for her to come back another time to perform. She had little time to address every single member of the crowd because the soldiers were beginning to push her to take the steps up back into the safety of Soltis. They were under her brother's orders to keep her safe, after all. They quickly left her side once the gates were closed, and Aoi felt all the better for it. If she played her cards right, she could easily slip out again and got hunting like she had been meaning to do this entire time.

Dispelling her glamour away, Aoi climbed the staircase into the Understory to find her things when she overheard a pair of soldiers talking amongst themselves. These days, gossip was at an all time high because of recent developments outside of Kholusia. She herself didn't know the full details of what had happened over in Lakeland, only that it was the reason why Lord Kitamura shook the Canopy for a good few hours. She had been present in the Beehive when the commotion happened, and she was stuck consoling her fellow chorus girls out of their fright. She slipped behind a pillar to listen out of sight. For extra measure, she shrouded her aether partially away, a technique Ema had taught her to help her sneak out of Soltis whenever she pleased.

"You're getting deployed to Lakeland, too?"

"Yes, I just received word from my captain last night."

"You think it had something to do with… the rumors?"

"You mean the one about the Lakeland's new… champion? The… Warrior of Darkness, whoever that is."

"It can't be true, can it?"

"Of course not. Those Crystal folks must be at it again, killing themselves for their stupid cause."

"Hey, you can't say that out loud here!"

"I'll say it however much I want to. Why else would they constantly be struggling to stay alive?"

Realizing that this conversation was nothing new, Aoi stepped away and went back to what she had been doing earlier. Unlike these soldiers, she believed in the existence of a Warrior of Darkness, for she had heard about it from the Oracle herself. In the nights she was allowed to stay over, she often found Aqua tossing herself in fitful sleep, crying for this warrior of a legend yet to happen. When asked, Aqua was always resolute that such a person was alive right now, biding their time to strike.

"I've never been wrong in my predictions, have I?" She once said. "I'd prove it to you… if I could only be allowed just once outside this city."

At this memory, Aoi stopped dead in her tracks. Perhaps Aqua didn't have to tell her why and where she had gone. The answer had been right in front of her all along.

* * *

♬ | More Than Truth - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0bE4wSOe78) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

"Yusakuuuuu, wake up alreadyyyyyy!"

The young man in question stirred at the incessant whining. He was beginning to grow irritated at the frequency he was getting knocked out. If Ai was going to cause him any more troubles, he might as well check himself in to the local chirurgeon as an invalid.

Yusaku found himself in an unfamiliar bed, an unfamiliar room.

"Where am I?"

"Someone's room," Ai spoke before realizing how unhelpful that was. "I don't remember names, the guy with the mask."

So this was Revolver's room. From what little he knew about Revolver, he expected the place to be more austere, with only one simple bed for furnishings. To the contrary, there was a small kitchen, a desk, and a surprising number of plants scattered about. The window was left open with a view overlooking Lakeland, proudly reveling under the newfound night. It actually felt like a home compared to his old run down shack or the room the Homuras lent him.

"How long was I out?"

"You've been out for…. a week?" Ai counted the days on his fingers. "I don't really keep track of time that well."

Yusaku rose out of the bed, shaking the drowsiness out of himself. He was surprised that he was feeling so unhampered by the weight of his own clothes when he realized he hadn't been wearing much at all save for his smallclothes and a startling number of bandages. It seemed whoever was treating him had removed his equipment to treat his wounds. He was going to need to find spare clothes if he was going to leave this place in any sort of decency.

Since the moment he had regained consciousness, Yusaku was drawn to the well used desk in the other side of the room. Knowing who this desk belonged to, he had hoped he could find something valuable left behind on it, maybe something pertaining to the Crystal Exarch. If Revolver cared so much about the Exarch, perhaps he had some sort of keepsake with him.

Unfortunately, the Drahn likely foresaw this happening, and the desk was clear of everything save for the standard inkwell. Yusaku tried the drawers and cupboards, but they were locked and wouldn't budge an inch no matter how hard he tried to force them. Did Revolver had only recently cleared his room for Yusaku's sake, or he had always had to maintain secrecy?

"Snooping on another man's things?" Ai teased him, looking over his shoulder. "No sense of shame, have you?"

Yusaku wanted to say something back, but the click of the door had them both on alert. As if he had been caught, Yusaku scrambled back onto the bed, ears and tail bristling at the intrusion, and Ai behaved similarly.

The doors to this room swung open, and in stepped Revolver, hands behind his back and unperturbed to the sight of two Mystel, one nearly naked at that, in posing threateningly on his own bed.

"I see you are awake," Curse the bastard, he even sounded amused by their discomfort. "Did you have a good rest?"

"What am I doing here?" Yusaku demanded.

"I'm giving you the best hospitality I could offer," was the answer. "The Spagyrics are heavily impacted as of the evacuation from Holminster Switch. In your case, I volunteered my quarters, among other reasons."

Revolver walked across the room to the bed, and Yusaku warily backed himself into the headboard. Ai dove onto the mattress between them to protect him as well as any ghost could. His dark cape came down on Yusaku's head and phased right through him.

"Don't you lay a finger on him," For a fool, Ai looked ready to tear the other young man to shreds. "I said I wasn't going to talk until he woke up."

"And I will honor that promise," Revolver didn't move from where he stood. "I was merely approaching him to give him these."

He revealed his hands and laid a small lump of clothes at the foot of the bed. Yusaku inspected it and realized that they were his own clothes, direct from his drawers from his room in Clearmelt.

"I asked your friends to provide you with spare clothes," Revolver explained. "When the chirurgeons dealt with your wounds, I inspected your armor and found them well beyond repair for further use."

Yusaku frowned. "Then what did you do with them?"

"I gave them to the artisans at the Mean to repurpose," he said. "As thanks for your participation, I've had you fitted for a set, and it'll be delivered to you shortly. You won't have to return here for a good few years if you wear them well."

How… oddly kind of him, but also intrusive, if Revolver had him fitted while he was unconscious. But Yusaku didn't want to let his guard down over this. There had to be a catch somewhere.

"You should hurry and put something on," Revolver stepped away and turned around to give him privacy. "I have questions for the Ignis, so I'll have to stay."

Yusaku would have much preferred the Drahn would leave the room entirely, but who was he to tell him what to do in his own room? Ai, far less courteous, eyed the two of them curiously, like he was watching a stage play.

Yusaku reached first for his trousers and got out of the bed to pull them on, trying to ignore Ai's stare while listening in on the following conversation. When Yusaku heard Revolver lay down the heavy accusation that Ai was one of the Ignis, Yusaku had to think over again what little he truly knew about such entities. As far as anyone could ever tell him, accounts of the Ignis varied between gods or demigods awakening to their divine heritage to defend their fellow man from the then vilified Darkness. But Yusaku knew better than to trust the lacking records of the Ignis in the Cabinet of Curiosity, and this was probably a rare chance for him to find out.

"So, Ignis," Revolver didn't turn around. "He is awake, and he is well. You will answer my questions."

Ai sighed deeply as he sat more comfortably on the bed. Yusaku continued pulling his first shirt over his head, still listening intently.

"I still stand by what I said," Ai began. "I get that you have reasons to hate me and my friends… But the Flood of Light? That was an honest mistake."

"Mistake?" Revolver growled. "Do you know just how much of our world had been wiped out by the Flood, that you and your kind caused?"

Yusaku watched Ai squirm under Revolver's scrutiny, and honestly, he wasn't about to defend this stranger. The first sin eaters were born from the bodies of those who were caught in the Flood, and in their wake they created more sin eaters out of unsuspecting victims.

"There's something you don't understand," Ai argued back. "Not all of us had meant for the Flood to happen-"

The ghost realized he had taken a misstep and threw his hands over his mouth to stop himself.

"Not all of us?" Yusaku didn't miss Ai's slip-up. "You mean that the Flood of Light wasn't an accident, then?"

"What I mean to say is-" The knight panicked and struggled to find the right words. "Look, it was a lot more complicated than that. We were aware that it could happen, and we argued about it…"

After much floundering, Ai stopped and took a deep breath.

"I was among those who were against causing the Flood," he confessed. "What happened afterwards was… a mess of things even I'm still trying to figure out. It's a lot harder now that I'm not Ignis. Well, not anymore."

Yusaku was just as confused as Revolver.

"Not anymore?" He asked while tucking in his shirt. "How does that even work?"

"Good question," Ai shrugged. "I wish I knew, too. What I do know is that I definitely died when the Flood hit Norvrandt, and I'm back as a ghost."

"You're no ghost," Revolver corrected him. "You're still an Ignis."

"Okay, two can play this game," Ignis gestured to all of himself. "An Ignis shouldn't have trouble touching things whenever they please! So what am I?!"

"An Ignis who has trouble with their powers," Revolver's frowned deepened. "No excuse is getting you out of this."

Ai's ears and tail stood up in alarm, and in a single moment, he popped out of the room. Yusaku stared blankly at the space the ghost once occupied. Revolver considered the air for a moment and sighed, as if he hadn't been the reason the conversation had gone sour.

"It seems he will not be speaking with me for a while."

"That's because you upset him," Yusaku pointed out.

"And you cannot speak to him freely?"

"I have no power over him," It's only been hours since Yusaku knew Ai. "He's not some pixie."

He understood how Revolver was committed to his mission, to the Crystal Exarch, to the eradication of the sin eaters, but sometimes Yusaku thought of him so enslaved to his mission that he was ignoring the potential for the truth. As someone who probably lived under lies after lies, he probably forgot how. Maybe, just a little, Yusaku resented the Crystal Exarch for having turned a probably respectable person like Revolver this way.

"There was much we could have asked him," he added, just out of spite.

Revolver was most displeased by the suggestion. "And you'll trust this lone Ignis?"

Yusaku didn't know how to answer that question. By all logic, he should not be so trusting, and he should be stepping aside for Revolver to eradicate a potential threat. Perhaps he felt indebted to Ai, even if what the Ignis did was trivial in hindsight. Never before had Yusaku been able to be so in touch with his internal aether, not since that incident ten years ago. No matter how much he devoted himself to learning the dark arts, he could never quite regain that sense of wholeness until Ai compelled him to perform the same techniques in his presence.

Revolver drew his own conclusions from Yusaku's silence.

"Then I won't mince words," Revolver declared. "What the Ignis have done to our realm was unforgivable. If you mean to defend the Ignis, then I'm sure you understand what that means for you."

"I do understand," Yusaku shot back curtly. "And so, once I am let out of here, I will not return here again."

The words flew out of his mouth before he could stop. Even Revolver was taken aback by his bold words.

"As if you would," his voice sank to a disappointed growl.

"And I will," Yusaku doubled down, simply because Revolver was trying to doubt him. "Once my gear is replaced, I really won't come back."

This was fine for Yusaku. He was right not to fall for Revolver's hospitality, and he never wanted to be here in the first place. He only played nice with the Hanoi Guard for the sake of the Crystal Exarch. As much of a slave he was to what little he remembered of the Exarch's voice, Yusaku decided that he could live without seeing the Exarch if it meant being able to do whatever he wanted.

To further cement his point, Yusaku buckled his belt and got ready to leave, but the moment he made a move for the door, Revolver stepped in his way.

"Fujiki," he commanded. "You will remain here."

And whatever happened to their agreement that he wasn't coming back here? Now that Yusaku thought about it, neither of them said anything about him being let go.

"You can't tell me what to-"

"This wasn't from me, but the Exarch," Revolver cut him off.

Yusaku tensed. The Exarch knew of him? Did he remember Yusaku after all this time?

"The Exarch?"

"Yes," Revolver ignored the dumbfounded look on Yusaku's face. "He's heard of your accomplishments and ordered me to tell you to stay put because of the danger you're in right now."

"What danger?"

"Missives from Soltis have been sent in the past few days," Revolver continued. "They've been demanding to know what had become of the Lightwarden of Lakeland, and their words were far from civil. They've been stopping by villages on the way asking for the Warrior of Darkness."

The mention of Soltis gave Yusaku pause. Soltis had sought peace with the sin eaters less than a decade ago, and soon after, its walls were never again under siege by those beasts. Their shores were under the sin eaters' protection so long as no harm came to the more powerful eaters. When Yusaku had slain the Lightwarden in Lakeland, he hadn't thought once about how Soltis would react.

They were interrupted by the creaking of an open door, and in came a tall elf in uniform. Yusaku recognized the red cape and the brand of the Hanoi on her tunic.

"Lord-" Pandor took notice that Revolver wasn't quite alone. "Revolver."

The Drahn gave Yusaku some space and turned around.

"Yes?"

"We've sighted an airship at Soltis docked at Laxan Loft," the captain reported with a firm salute. "The Sol emissary is arriving as we speak."

Yusaku tensed at the news. So Soltis was already at their doorstep?

Revolver, however, appeared to have expected this. "How soon?"

"The scouts have estimated in a matter of three bells. That should be enough time to prepare."

"Then I'll be with you in a moment to receive them," Revolver told the captain, who bowed then took her leave.

As soon as the door closed behind Pandor, Revolver turned back on Yusaku and closed the distance between them until Yusaku could clearly see his own reflection taking up the entirety of the Revolver's mask. It took everything Yusaku had to strain his neck and flare his ears. He could not appear intimidated.

"You heard everything?"

Yusaku nodded slowly. "I did."

Mutual dislike aside, if there was something Yusaku and Revolver could agree on, it was how much they despised Soltis. That accursed city would love nothing more than the people of the Crystarium to give up and flee to Kholusia with their tails between their legs. The Warden's death most certainly killed their chances of winning over the Crystal Tower and its protectors.

"Then you understand what is at stake here," Revolver continued. "The enemy is right outside our doorstep and have marked you as an enemy. If you were to walk out right now while Sol soldiers wander about our Crystarium, they would not hesitate to take you down. You wouldn't want a repeat of that incident, would you?"

So Revolver thought he could scare him by bringing up old scars, did he?

Yusaku scowled back. "Then give me glamour, and I'll-"

"You're staying," said Revolver.

"But-"

"Think of your own safety for once… please."

For a moment, Yusaku thought Revolver was begging, as if he were speaking for himself, and not the Exarch. No, he chided himself, this was only a trick of the voice. Revolver was only interested in keeping favor with the Exarch for reasons that begged to be known, and Yusaku himself was only an instrument to his own motivations.

Yusaku promptly went back and seated himself back on the bed, but he made sure to not break eye contact with Revolver. Revolver could have the floor if he came back. Yusaku wasn't in any kind of sharing mood today, and he needed this man to know exactly what he was signing up for. Takeru would be so proud.

He even folded his arms for effect. "Very well, then."

The Drahn snorted at his petty display of insolence, "You'll receive word of your release when it's clear that Soltis won't be staying to pursue you."

And how long would that be? Yusaku could only interpret Revolver's reassurances as a warning that he was under the thumb of Hanoi so long as Sol had the temperament of a bloodhound.

Yusaku tried to burn holes into Revolver's retreating back as he exited. Just as the Hanoi soldier pushed open the door, Revolver stopped short of going outside.

"Ah," he uttered, and the young man stepped aside for the unexpected guest. Yusaku was just as surprised, and he let his tense posture slacken.

"Yusaku," Kusanagi rushed through the doors, not even sparing Revolver a second glance. The doors closed on them and the lock was set, but Kusanagi didn't seem to mind.

"I'm sorry I couldn't come sooner," the man apologized. "We couldn't do anything when Revolver carried you away. The bastard knew that he could keep all of us in line that way."

"He hasn't tried anything," Ai returned again beside them, draping himself over the side of the bed. Yusaku supposed that the ghost had bounced back quickly from all that sulking no thanks to Revolver.

"Are you sure?" Kusanagi had long since overcome his shock at the shade.

"Sure, I've been watching the entire time," Ai shrugged. "Although that Revolver guy did visit a lot of times and-"

"Nothing happened," Yusaku didn't want to hear the rest of this, and neither did Kusanagi. Ai scoffed as he returned back to the matter at hand. "And everyone else?"

"Takeru is in a room we're sharing with another soldier, and Jin's in the Spagyrics," said Kusanagi. "Takeru's been demanding to see you, but the Hanoi Guard aren't letting him through. I only got in because I claimed I was your personal chirurgeon."

And Revolver didn't seem to mind, Yusaku observed.

"Now that you're awake," Kusanagi laid out his things across the other side of the bed. He might not have been a certified chirugeon, but he knew medical aid well enough to treat wounds. "Are you feeling anything out of place?"

"I feel… fine," was all Yuusaku could say. First, the wounds he sustained from getting thrown into walls by that sin eater were already accounted for, and he didn't feel any headaches coming on. Second, Kusanagi wasn't specialized in treating aetherial imbalances, so even if Yusaku had one from absorbing that much Light, they wouldn't know what to look for. Third, he couldn't worry Kusanagi and the others more after their last scare.

Kusanagi was unconvinced. "All right, then can you tell me what happened while we were separated?"

Yusaku told him mostly everything, about the surprisingly good hospitality of the Hanoi and his implied confinement while Sol lurked in the Crystarium. He made sure to leave out the part that the Revolver said that the Crystal Exarch personally ordered for his confinement, only saying that Hanoi personally saw a use for him and liked to keep it that way. For all his interruptions and unnecessary embellishments throughout the entire thing, Ai was respectful to not point out the clear omission of facts.

"I see," Kusanagi rubbed his chin in thought. "That does explain a lot of the secrecy right now."

Yusaku knitted his eyebrows together. "You mean no one outside of the Guard know what happened in the Switch?"

Kusanagi shook his head.

"I haven't met a single person in the Crystarium who had much of a clue what happened in Holminster aside from the usual Warrior of Darkness talk," he explained. "The Hanoi Guard must have been thorough to keep our identities confidential."

Just like all the other times, Yusaku added silently.

"Then there's something I don't understand," Yusaku added. "Did they really have to shut me up in here?"

Ai made a face at the question. "What? You don't think Revolver is just playing favorites with you?"

"Absolutely not." If anything, Revolver probably wouldn't have liked Yusaku involved in any Hanoi business in the first place, otherwise the Crystal Exarch would have him replaced. "Hanoi has watched me long enough to know that none of us would tell, and not to be morbid here, but I've always thought that a war was going to happen. There was no way Soltis was going to let the Crystarium and her allies combat the sin eater threat forever."

"I've been thinking about this, too," Kusanagi joined him in deep thought. "It's almost as if Yusaku's... confinement wasn't about keeping Soltis from going to war with the Crystarium."

"Uh, fair, I guess," Ai looked at Yusaku, still somewhat following the conversation. "So what other reasons does the Hanoi want you aside from Revolver just liking you?"

Yusaku and Kusanagi exchanged uneasy looks. Both of them rarely shared their concerns with the rest of the family who were trying hard to move on, but the circumstances of an incident of ten years ago still hung heavy in their minds.

They didn't know then, why Yusaku, Jin, Takeru, and three others had been abducted only to be found with their aether in shambles. While Jin was one door away from becoming a sin eater, Yusaku had little control over how his aether behaved, and Takeru leaked aether like a broken faucet. Although the experiments done on them seemed at first a failure for being cut short, only now could they realize the fruits of the first Crystal Exarch's labors. The permanent death of the Lightwarden of Lakeland was proof of what these children were meant for.  
  
"It's not hard to figure out we're useful to them," Yusaku ignored Ai's teasing. "The question is just how much?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 11/24/19: Major revisions to change Jin to being afflicted.


	5. an unwelcome guest

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While under some sort of house arrest until Soltis goes away, Ai learns about Yusaku's past and the tale of the Blue Maiden. Akira and Blood Shepherd pay a visit to the Crystarium to inquire about recent events and a potential war between them and Soltis, but in truth, they're looking for Aqua. Revolver decides to take advantage of this and starts making plans.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is absurdly long, but it's mostly exposition, sneaky scheming, and me spoon feeding you with excessive annotations. So… sorry about the lack of shippy stuff. At least next chapter Miyu shows up, so there's some good news.
> 
> 10/28/19: fixed the expository paragraphs in the later part of this chapter for narrative coherence.
> 
> 11/24/19: major revision of Jin's condition to afflicted.

♬ | More Than Truth by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0bE4wSOe78) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

Kusanagi was quick to leave once he was done checking up on them. Jin was under the care of the Crystarium's chirurgeons, and he had been restless about the entire issue, given his distrust of the Hanoi. Only then did he realize that Revolver, petty as he was, had locked the both of them into the room, and he had to bang on the door a few times to get a Hanoi soldier's attention to be let out. Yusaku himself tried to follow after Kusanagi to see the rest of the family, but the soldier was firm on keeping him inside despite Kusanagi's complaints.

Now, Yusaku was back on Revolver's bed sulking again. Ai couldn't read the boy's face quite well enough, but the way his tail lashed back and forth beside him said enough about his mood. The sight reminded Ai of his own youth when he wasn't allowed to do whatever he pleased… Ah, that was such a long time ago.

Ai continued to watch Yusaku carefully from his perch on the windowsill, his head still full of questions. He knew basic courtesy to not ask Yusaku many questions about himself. The boy was most certainly a very private person, like Lightning.

"Ai."

The Ignis in question was startled out of his thoughts. "What? What I'd do?"

"Nothing," The boy swung his feet over the side of the bed. "I just wanted to speak to you."

"And?"

"I want to try that thing again," Yusaku said while holding out his hand. "Back at Holminster."

Ai blinked down at Yusaku's palm for a few seconds.

"Why?"

"Because I want to," Ah, so he was bored.

"Uh…" Just how was he supposed to take this? "What do you… want to do? I can't do anything unless you specify what you want to do."

"Anything related to the dark arts," Yusaku said simply. "Actually, help me with something difficult. I want to try the Verse of the Blackest Night."

Oh, what good fortune. A chance for Ai to impress the boy.

"All right. Give your best try."

Yusaku immediately began gathering aether to his hands, closing his eyes to concentrate. In turn, Ai sensed the aether spilling out between the fragments and willed them back into place. He wasn't sure what in the world could have possibly been poking holes in this boy's core, but patching it up was child's play for Ai.

The boy then raised his hands above his head as if he were holding a real sword, and he summoned a fairly complex circle at his feet and around his head. A thin layer of aether formed at his feet and grew upwards, wrapping around himself to hold a spherical barrier around himself, finishing with a flash of white and red. The sphere then faded out of view, but its effects surely remained.

Yusaku looked at his hands curiously, and Ai could spot the tiny bit of a child's glee in his eyes, a surprise for someone so placid.

"And look at you, happy like Starlight morning," Ai chuckled, confused as to why the boy was so happy over something so basic for a practitioner of the dark arts, "You act like you've never done that before."

"Because I never have," Yusaku kept inspecting his hands. "All I've done is basic bursts of aether, but I can't do much more than that, no matter how much theory I learned."

Now this was interesting, Ai thought as he leaned his chin into his palms. He should have expected that Yusaku was self-taught, which… wasn't that different from himself, actually. But learning the dark arts through vague suggestion and books was already a daunting task of its own. The idea of simply not being able to control the flow of one's aether would simply be discouraging. And this boy was a hunter?

"There's no way you got by just doing that much."

Unimpressed by the doubt, Yusaku held out his hands again. "Well, see for yourself."

Without prompting Ai to do anything, he grew an spiked orb of black out of his palm, the most basic training technique where the user had to make it as big as possible without losing form, Ai recalled. The moment it grew to the size of both their heads, the orb started warping and straining before bursting. The scattered aether got everywhere, leaving a few scorch marks on the floor and the curtains and even taking out a bookshelf behind them.

An awkward pause, then Ai pressed his lips into a thin line.

"So… Your aether control is just that bad, huh." [1]

All he got back was a small nod.

"And you can't do anything about it."

Another nod.

"A lot of stuff runs on aether, you know," Ai frowned, imagining all the problems attached. "Even the little aetherytes scattered about this place."

"I can't use them," Yusaku admitted. "I can't attune to anything if I tried."

So he was virtually trapped here in Lakeland. Maybe that's why the boy hated this tower and the city surrounding it. As far as Ai could tell, the only way anyone could stand living in such a vast space was being able to teleport among the aetherytes installed in fixed points around the tower. It must be tough having to just walk or fly everywhere. Now that he thought about it, the other two boys were probably in equal trouble.

"All right, so..." He glanced aside to Yusaku. "Just how did your aether turn out so... odd?"

The resounding silence he received made the Ignis think twice about what he had asked. He must have overstepped his boundaries and made Yusaku upset, which was understandable. This boy seemed like one of those types who disliked being prodded for questions.

"You are correct. It wasn't always like this," Yusaku broke the silence. "I was what you would have considered whole once until ten years ago."

He looked back to his hands to avoid looking at Ai.

"I was a prisoner in this very tower when the first Crystal Exarch still lived," he elaborated. "I won't… speak in detail about what had happened in there, only that uncorrupted aether was run through me enough times that resulted in what you see now."

Even the faint suggestion of exposure to uncorrupted aether sent a chill down Ai's spine. In his travels, he had bore witness to all sorts of horrific ordeals, but inducing a permanent imbalance and fracturing of aether must have been traumatizing. And Yusaku must have been less than twelve summers at that time.

"I escaped, eventually, and whatever they intended for me ended prematurely because the first Exarch died and was succeeded by the second Exarch," Yusaku continued, his frown growing deeper. "There wasn't anything but sin eaters in the village I returned to, so… in a way I was saved from certain death, but..."

He couldn't finish, and Ai wasn't about to force him to, either. Yusaku had given him everything he needed to know: this boy was built to be a weapon against the sin eaters. It would make sense, from the perspective of humans, to create warriors capable of resisting the eater's blighted touch, and the younger, the better. Even though the experiments were incomplete, as Yusaku had said, they didn't completely fail, if the encounter at Holminster demonstrated anything. Their captors were aware of his value, too.

The knight ran a hand through his hair, while Yusaku watched him quietly. It appeared that he was aware that Ai had connected the dots in his head.

"I'm sorry," was all Ai could say in earnest.

"I didn't tell you out of pity," Yusaku said. "I said it to make you know how much the people here, even the Crystal Exarchs themselves, were willing to kill the eaters."

Ai's expression must have broke, because Yusaku stopped looking at him and turned his gaze towards Revolver's desk to distract himself. Even though Yusaku possessed the compassion to defend him from Revolver, he, too, resented the Ignis in his own way. A fair sentiment, in Ai's opinion. He had yet to accomplish anything to win the boy's trust.

Since their little practice session had made a bit of a mess in Revolver's quarters, Yusaku began to clean up the books on the floor. Ai had expected that Yusaku was going to leave the books there out of spite for the man, but perhaps even under all that tension the boy still found it in himself to respect Revolver somehow. Perhaps he could inquire about their history some other time, for entertainment's sake.

The book at Ai's feet was wide open, and Ai peered down to read it. He hadn't been in contact with civilization for years after wandering in a haze. He wondered if the language had changed, or what styles had become popular. But what he found wasn't walls of text, but a series of illustrations. Ai didn't particularly care about the ones of plants and flowers, but he saw a picture of a blue haired girl. Blue hair?

Ai wanted to get a closer look when Yusaku bent over to reach for the book.

"Wait a minute," He stepped in between him and the bookshelf to stop him, and Yusaku did. "Can you... Go back to the page of that book?"

The boy gave him an odd look but did as he asked, and the picture had Ai thinking again. A young woman was depicted with blue eyes and hair, sword raised skywards and regalia shimmering. Something about the picture struck him.

"Who is this?" he asked, pointing at the girl.

"It's the Blue Maiden," Yusaku stated as if it were fact. "Or one of them, anyway."

Ai looked back to the illustration, confused about what was bothering him about this illustration. Perhaps this could be a lead for him to find his fellow survivors. Yusaku took his silence for the end of the conversation and closed the book again. "If that's all you wanted to ask, can I put this book away now?"

"No!" His forceful tone took even Yusaku by surprise. "Tell me more!"

"About what?"

"The Blue Maiden," Ai nodded towards the book again. "She reminded me of a friend."

The boy was as puzzled as ever. "A… friend."

"I had a friend who had blue hair and eyes," Ai clarified. "An excellent healer who's saved my hide one too many times."

Yusaku wasn't at all that interested about those additional details, however. "So your friend was an Ignis like yourself?"

"Um… yeah?"

The boy looked back down at the illustration with a confused frown. Ai could swear he heard the gears turning in his head with the ridiculous amount of focus he was directing at the poor picture.

"Uh… I just wanted to know the story behind this picture because it fascinates me," The laugh that came out of his throat came out strangled. "Just… humor me, will you?"

Yusaku considered his request, then returned the rest of the books he was holding, only keeping the one that Ai wanted. It wasn't like either of them had anything better to do.

"In the final hour of the Flood of Light," Yusaku began stiffly. Ai supposed Yusaku had never been much of a storyteller. "A young woman with blue hair and blue eyes appeared in the outer edges of Amh Areng."

"Was her name Aqua?" The words left Ai's mouth before he could think.

"Yes," Yusaku frowned at his outburst. "She called herself Aqua. She was the sole Ignis who fought to save the people of Norvrandt from being consumed by Light."

"Uh, actually, she wasn't the only Ignis-"

Patience tested, Yusaku closed the book again and glared at him. "Do you want me to tell you the story or not?"

At that, Ai didn't say another pithy comment from then on.

"She stopped the Flood from taking Norvrandt, but it killed her," Yusaku continued. "But she foretold the return of Warrior of Darkness before she died."

Ai bowed his head at the memory of Aqua calling out to him and Earth when they both could no longer sustain their blades against the wave of Light. If he and the others didn't survive, then of course Aqua wouldn't have survived.

Yusaku didn't appear to notice his distress and kept talking. "Years later, a girl with blue hair and eyes was discovered in Voeburt. What was most shocking was that she survived a sin eater attack and was completely immune to affliction, so the people called her Aqua like the Oracle of Light.

"She then enlisted in the Sol Army and became their champion, vanquishing all sin eaters that threatened Soltis," Yusaku opened the book again showing the girl raising a sword. "Her predictions and victories earned her the names Blue Maiden, Blue Angel, among other things." [2]

A small bit of pride welled up in Ai's heart. Of course Aqua wouldn't have gone down so easily, using the last of her strength to be reborn and continuing the fight. But from the sound of it, she must have sacrificed her original form and became a human. Now Ai wanted to picture, Aqua as an old crone after so many people teased her for staying so absurdly young and small (although not as short as Windy).

"So… what happened to her?"

"She died."

The last word sent Ai's heart falling to the pit of his stomach.

"What?"

"The Blue Maiden died, just like all the other soldiers of her time," Yusaku shrugged. "But as Oracle, she said 'Aqua will return' with her dying breath."

"So she came back like she promised?" Ai's shoulders went tight.

"I can't say if she truly came back, but someone who looked like her was discovered here in Lakeland a few years later. Same hair, same eyes, same powers. She, too, fought sin eaters and joined Sol under the name Aqua."

"Did she die, too?" Ai asked tentatively. "And then another one appeared?"

"Yes," Yusaku nodded solemnly. "After the first Aqua, many more followed in her footsteps, and they all died young. All part of the cycle."

Ai remembered that the boy had said that book illustration was 'one of them'. His eyes lingered on a colored illustration of the blue haired girl in victory. To think this was how Aqua was living all these years... Fighting and dying and fighting and dying in wait for the stars to align just right. This was worse than his own situation. But Aqua was alive, and wasn't that what mattered?

"Then where is the current Aqua now?"

"Probably in Soltis," Yusaku turned around to put the book away. "After the first few Aqua's, Soltis sent regular scouting parties to find anyone who looks like Aqua in the event the current one died. Although, I don't believe she is part of their army anymore."

"Anymore?"

Ai supposed he was supposed to have known because Yusaku took a deep sigh. "You've heard about how Soltis is under some kind of peace agreement with the sin eaters now?"

"Maybe?" He's picked up that impression from the past conversations he's listened in on. "So they don't just fight anymore?"

"Worse," Yusaku grimaced. "They not only gave up resistance, they drown in excess. The Blue Maiden was always an icon of our fight against the eaters, a threat to Soltis' peace."

Ai didn't want to think the worst. "Then what did they do to the Aqua of the present?"

"Probably keep her under lock and key," Yusaku suggested. "Or maybe they've raised this one to be just as spoiled and pampered like the rest of their citizens. The Sol authorities are never clear, and not many of the hunters I know from Soltis could honestly tell me about the current one."

Neither of those possibilities sound good, but Ai would like to believe that Aqua was imprisoned. Back when they were all traveling together, Aqua was in some ways a leader in her own right and made up for whatever Lightning couldn't do. Her profound empathy for man was what drove her to rally half of the Ignis to her side so they could save Norvrandt. There was no way someone like her would give in to complacency and ignore the suffering around her. Somewhere out there, she had to have been finding some way to find the rest him and the rest of their party.

"We have to save her."

Yusaku arched an eyebrow. "Why?"

"She's an Ignis like me, isn't she?" Ai reasoned. "My memory may be messed up, but maybe hers isn't! She was the one who commanded those of us to help stop the Flood, after all!"

"So you think she will have the answer to destroying the sin eaters once and for all?"

"Maybe? It's just a hunch!"

"And how do you suppose you're going to do that?" Yusaku folded his arms against his chest. "You were doing such a great job of convincing Revolver back there to believe you."

"But maybe you and I-"

"You've already seen the extent of my abilities," The boy looked loathe to admit his weakness, but he said it anyways. "I don't even hold a candle against the entire Sol Army head on. If the Hanoi Guard couldn't get to her, then what am I?"

Ai relented and stared back at his feet. Yusaku had a point. All Ai was to most people was just a ghost of one of the most despised characters in history, and Yusaku was held to the whims of the same people who made him the young man he was. They appeared powerless, in a way, even if Ai had in ways "undone" the changes to Yusaku's aether. More than ever, Ai missed the comfort of having friends and heroes at his side who could actually help him.

Without so much as saying a simple goodbye, Ai popped out of the room, probably hoping to wander in someplace deserted and quiet in this Crystarium. He needed to recollect himself. Yusaku likely needed that time, too.

* * *

♬ | Bedlam's Brink by Masyoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RFt8RnScxlc) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

Akira had visited the Crystarium multiple times in his military career, and as always, the place was as busy as ever. From the rumors and reports his subordinates were bringing in, he had expected the place would be more concerned with celebrating the sudden drop in sin eater sightings. Certainly, the people here were looking a lot less grim, but everything seemed to be business as usual.

Their efforts were admirable, albeit wasteful, which was a shame, Akira thought, for the Crystal Tower itself was a marvel of mankind. Once a symbol of power for a civilization long gone long before the Flood, it remained a beacon of hope for the people of Lakeland and those who still dared to combat the threat of sin eaters. Akira could scarcely remember when Soltis themselves were part of the war effort with the Crystarium, when the true Blue Angel actually went out to fight along the rest of her comrades. But after the new mayor announced a truce with the sin eaters, Soltis, and by extension Kholusia, was by far one of the safest places in the realm, even the outskirts of Gatetown. He couldn't imagine wanting to go back to the times before the sin eaters regularly came for the refugee camps outside the gates of Soltis.

He had come on Queen's orders, who hadn't so much as said a word to him outside of terse orders to assemble an airship to Lakeland. The mayor of Sol had learned what had become of Lakeland's Warden had fallen and had all but destroyed his resting chambers. Somehow, Queen had managed to quell his anger by feeding him a month's worth of meol. Instead of attending talks with the Crystal Exarch herself, she had him go in her stead with some supervision. The Blood Shepherd… was what she called him.

Right behind him was the aforementioned man most suspiciously shrouded in a dark cloak and an unsettling silver mask. He'd have assumed that this Blood Shepherd was a Drahn from his height and width, not that he would ever say anything in the first place, but later observations contradicted his guesses. Akira never quite questioned where he had come from, but along the way, Blood Shepherd had proven most formidable in battle, defending their ships on stops and leaving a rather bloody mess of wildlife in his wake (he supposed that was were the alias came from). He wondered if this man ever had a wink of sleep on these trips.

They reached the steps to the Ocular where a uniformed elf awaited them. Akira had encountered her a few times before in earlier visits, but he scarcely ever had the chance to ask for her name.

"The Exarch is ready to receive you," she bowed to him. "Please, this way."

He nodded courteously to her and followed the solider through the grand, crystal and gold-engraved doors that opened for them. The same doors slammed behind them, and in response a staircase of the same blue crystal materialized itself at their feet. Akira didn't hesitate to climb on after the Hanoi escort, while Blood Shepherd eyed the stairs suspiciously before joining them.

The walk took them to another equally elaborate pair of doors, albeit smaller than the ones they just passed through.

"Exarch, sir," their escort called in. "I've come with the Sol emissaries."

"Thank you, Pandor," a smooth, deep voice came from behind the doors. "Let them enter."

On cue, the doors swung open, and Pandor stepped back to let them into a fair sized chamber of unrivaled splendor. Gold of ages past were inlaid in a grand display of an ancient astrologian's star chart on the floor, surrounded by lancet windows that allowed the tower's glow illuminate the chamber. Only Soltis could wish to have such a sight.

Blood Shepherd's rough cough snapped Akira out of his awe. Flustered, the adjutant made sure to give a polite bow once more to their escort before she assumed her position beside the Crystal Exarch.

Contrary to popular belief, the Crystal Exarch was absurdly young, even if he had taken over for the previous Exarch ten or so years ago. [3] Much like Blood Shepherd, the Exarch took great pains to keep his face and body hidden. He kept a respectable distance and was cloaked in black and red robes embroidered as elaborately as the very room he occupied. The only thing he could see of the Exarch were his hands and the lower half of his face, nothing more.

"Well, well, if it isn't a loyal subject of the great Mayor of Soltis," the Exarch smiled slyly. "To what do I owe the honor, Sir Zaizen?"

Akira mustered the strength to keep his mouth from twisting. As lovely as this tower was, it's owner was always painfully candid about how he felt about Soltis.

"We were sent to receive your official statement on recent happenings in your area," he answered. "We wish to know why the Lightwarden of Lakeland has died."

"And you believe the people of the Crystarium, my people, were the ones responsible?" The Exarch suggested.

"Who else would have the manpower to attempt to kill a Lightwarden, Exarch?" Akira asked. "You, the only major establishment left in Norvrandt who has not agreed to comply with the treaty between Soltis and sin eater."

"Unfortunately, I'm afraid I cannot claim that the Hanoi Guard had killed that Lightwarden," the Exarch shook his head. "That was the work of the Warrior of Darkness, who answered their call and delivered the night unto us."

"Then the Crystarium assisted them? Because if they did, then both my superior and Lord Kitamura have decreed that they take proper retribution for violating our truce."

The Exarch didn't flinch under the threat. He was pleased, in fact.

"I see," he said in return. "Regardless of who was responsible, all in the Crystarium would gladly tell you that they are rejoicing in the Lightwarden's death and the Warrior of Darkness' return. The hands of fate have been set in motion, and no one can stop them, not even me."

And there he went again about the fabled Warrior of Darkness like such a person really existed, Akira thought underneath his frown. He had always pegged the second Crystal Exarch as someone of wit and intelligence, but in the end, he and his followers were slaves to superstition laid down by the former Exarch. These people who still dared to struggle and resist in this dying world were beyond reason. Any further disagreement between them would only be a waste of time.

"Very well," his lips curled into an unkind smile. "I shall relay your words to Soltis, but do counsel any here who have done more than merely 'rejoice' the recent events to throw themselves upon the steps of Soltis. Promptly."

"And I will keep your advice in mind, Adjutant of Sol," the Exarch smiled back pleasantly, but Akira knew better than to trust that face.

"This concludes our talks," Pandor intervened, stepping out of her place to usher both Akira and Blood Shepherd out. "I shall escort you out to the gates."

Akira shot the Crystal Exarch one last incendiary look before he followed the elf out of the chambers. In due time, the Crystarium would have to understand that only under the glory of Lord Kitamura that they would find salvation.

* * *

Revolver eyed the Sol airships with suspicion. Sir Zaizen was as unamicable as always, and he had gone in fully expecting the that the Sol adjutant would leave on unpleasant terms with the Crystal Exarch. That man was too proud to admit that his own city-state could be in the wrong and would deny history if it meant that Soltis was flawless.

Dawn had already passed, and it had been a good hour or so the meeting, and the damn things hadn't moved when normally, they would break down their camps within minutes and take off promptly. There weren't enough airships to hold an army large enough to overtake the Crystal Tower and its defenses, and there hadn't been any alarms of any hordes of sin eaters descending upon them. What was delaying Soltis from beginning their invasion?

"Milord," Pandor contacted him by linkshell. "I've received reports that Sol forces are transferring a prisoner to their airships at Laxan Loft."

A prisoner? Revolver had a hunch who that might be.

"Would it happen to be the Oracle of Light?"

Pandor hesitated in her answer, likely reading over the report again. "Yes. She matched the description, from what our scouts gathered."

So that was why Soltis had yet to commence hostilities, Revolver realized. If their precious Blue Angel were caught in the crossfire and died, Soltis would lose one of their valuable assets, and the Hanoi Guard would gain an opportunity. There would certainly be a bloody race to find where she would be reborn, and neither city-state should come to blows over that. In fact, Revolver reckoned that for all the formalities that was Sir Zaizen's visit, Queen likely sent the man on a mission to retrieve their runaway Oracle first and foremost.

"It would be a shame if the poor Oracle was taken back to where she had run away from," he thought aloud. "Perhaps we should lend her our hospitality."

"I presumed you would suggest such a thing," Pandor hummed in approval. "How would you like us to proceed?"

Revolver looked out to Laxan Loft again. If the Hanoi Guard combined their forces stationed here and Fort Jobb with those out in the Ostall Imperative, they could overwhelm the Sol forces and buy themselves enough time to sneak in and break the Oracle out.

Now what were the external factors? Revolver could come up with three possibilities.

First, his first concern was Blood Shepherd, the masked hunter by Sir Zaizen's side at the meeting with the Crystal Exarch. He had little information on the man, only that he had been lending his services to Soltis for about two years, and he had been promoted to the vanguard in the recent month. As Exarch, Revolver had been keeping his eye on the hunter the entire time, and the takeaway was that Blood Shepherd was a seasoned hunter who could cause the Guard trouble. Their main forces would have to be wary of that man.

Second was the Oracle's guardian. Revolver had no doubt that the Oracle got out of Soltis and made it all the way to Lakeland on her own. She had to have some inside help, most likely from a hunter who sympathized with her plight and was willing to accept the money. Perhaps that same hunter was lurking about near the camp in wait for the right moment in the operation to sneak in, but could that guardian could get past the Blood Shepherd and the Hanoi Guard unnoticed? If the Oracle's guardian was as formidable as he believed, Revolver could count on them to keep Blood Shepherd occupied.

And third, the Warrior of Darkness and his entourage-to-be was certain to not miss out on this operation. Revolver had no illusions that Fujiki would obey him and remain in his quarters forever. The Mystel probably figured out exactly what was about to happen and was certainly making plans to escape while the operation was underway. Revolver could not ignore that Fujiki, too, had an investment in this turn of events. The Oracle of Light was, after all, the reincarnation of that Ignis's companion. The Ignis would convince Fujiki to seek the Oracle out and potentially strike out to look for the other Ignis. And where Yusaku went, his allies followed soon after.

He had full confidence that Fujiki and his allies didn't need persuading to banish all the primordial light in Norvrandt. For all the animosity Fujiki had for the Hanoi and the former Crystal Exarch, he was beholden to the current Crystal Exarch, all to his advantage. But Revolver couldn't trust that Fujiki would make the right choice with that Ignis whispering in his ear. That ghost of a knight was no fool, as much as he pretended to be, and could sway Fujiki to avoid fighting the Lightwardens, all for the sake of the Rejoining. In this case, supervision on Hanoi's end was required to keep Fujiki and the others focused.

Revolver turned away from the view of Laxan Loft to the Crystal Tower and issues a silent apology. For years and years, his father safeguarded this tower and built the long-lasting Crystarium, preserving the remnants of the civilization that crumbled under the Flood. At this very moment, he was betting on the slim chance that even though the Hanoi Project failed, his father's plan to end this era of excess light could succeed, the human costs be damned.

The Drahn sighed deeply and steeled himself for what was about to unfold.

"How do you feel about a little theatrics, Pandor?"

The captain on the other end left him on a long pause.

"I'm no actress, but I'll listen."

* * *

♬ | Machinations by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AXq3bnD0_SI) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/5fjJr4LRrdsDq7aypchHGH?si=s_VckT1SRKO-HBUFN4pRnQ)

The final buckle clicked in place, and Yusaku rose to his feet to test the stretch of the leather. It was going to take a month of hard hunting to break these gloves and boots in, but Revolver really did keep to his promise. One of the Hanoi Guard had just stopped by his door to deliver this entire set to him and asked that he try it on to test it, but much to Yusaku's surprise, it fit surprisingly well. The only issue he had was that it was pitch black when he would have preferred something with a greener tint. Perhaps he could have it dyed if he could make it back to Clearmelt. [4]

"Hey!"

Yusaku had to muster every ounce of restraint he had to not jump in fright at the shade's sudden return. Ai didn't seem to notice his tactlessness and noticed the change in outfits.

"Wow, looking really good over here," The knight whistled and mimicked the motions of someone swooning. "Revolver sure has some interesting tastes, doesn't he? With all those belts and leather?"

Yusaku shot the most critical look in return, and Ai straightened almost immediately as soon as he likely felt the temperature dropping in the room.

"Anyways, I figured out our next plan of action!" He grinned, his tail lifting like his own spirits. "Guess what I overheard from the Hanoi Guard just now?"

There wasn't much to work with here or hear, so no, Yusaku couldn't bother guessing. He let Ai continue on in his excitement.

"Aqua's here!" Ai threw his hands in the air. "The Oracle, or… whatever you call her, she's here! In Lakeland!"

This was the first time Yusaku had heard about any of this. "How?"

"How should I know?" Ai shrugged. "Well, word is that Aqua tried to run away from Soltis, and I guess she got caught here, so they're trying to take her back."

"And so what?" Yusaku frowned. "Are you trying to get me to go rescue her for you because I'm the nearest warm body you can reach right now?"

"Uh…" The fact that Ai was hesitating was a problem. "No!"

"I can fix you, Yusaku," Ai offered. "Your aether, I mean. Actually, I can undo whatever what happened to you."

So he was resorting to manipulation now? And with the idea of getting of rid of this weakness, the nightmares, the pain? That was tempting, but Yusaku hated that this ghost was trying to dangle an impossibility in front of him like this.

"What do you mean by 'fix'?" Yusaku asked. "And why should I believe you?"

"Well, I fixed your aether temporarily back in that fight, didn't I?" Ai pointed out. "With my brains, and your brawn, we can find a solution together! Maybe find a few friends to help, too!"

Yusaku wanted to believe Ai. After all, Ai had to have found him for a reason, wasn't it? Was he truly going to waste away in hiding or actually finding a solution for himself and his friends, all while escaping the authorities? He had nothing to lose here.

"And because this Aqua is a fellow Ignis who can aid you… aid us… you want to rescue her now?"

"Exactly!" Ai beamed, very pleased that they were on the same wavelength for once. "If we can speak with her, we might get some answers on how to figure this entire situation out!"

As Ai explained what he had heard about the Hanoi Guard's plans to ambush the Sol encampment at Laxan Loft and take the Blue Maiden for themselves, Yusaku was thinking ahead about what the Hanoi wanted with the Blue Maiden. Her prophecies would no doubt be useful in the upcoming war against Soltis, and if Soltis dared to send sin eaters out against the Crystarium, she, alongside those like himself, could fight them off. What irony that would be, that the woman once loyal and representative of Soltis could be their downfall if she instead fought in the name of the Crystarium?

"And so maybe we should… hey, you listening at all?"

"I was," Yusaku nodded absently. "You want a more concrete plan to escape, right?"

"That's not what I-" Ai stopped, and realized that Yusaku was forming a plan already. "Wait, yeah, let's do that."

"Once we have the Blue Maiden, we'll have to go into hiding," Yusaku prompted Ai. "Where should we go next?"

"I don't know, actually," So he didn't have that strong of a plan. "I was going to ask you when I came back."

"Hm," Yusaku began rubbing his chin in thought. "We have three options: Il Mheg, Amh Areng, and Rak'tika Greatwood. You remember your geography?"

He received a tentative nod, and he continued. "Our first option, Il Mheg, is the closest place, but we should think twice about stepping into that place without a proper guide."

"What?" Ai jerked his head back in surprise. "Why?"

"You seem to believe the Kingdom of Voeburt still exists at this age," Yusaku explained. "Well, it's no longer around, and the fae have claimed its remains as their own."

The mention of the fae made Ai go unnaturally quiet, and Yusaku couldn't blame him. Many a hapless hunter who wandered into Il Mheg met their untimely ends at the hands of otherworldly mischief.

"Our second option, Amh Areng, is too far away, and Rak'tika is no safer than Il Mheg," Yusaku continued. "The settlements there are loathe to welcome any surprise visitors."

"Well, they never were all that friendly," Ai commented. "So… do we choose pixies or getting riddled with arrows?"

"We'll head northeast to the greatwood," Yusaku decided, and Ai didn't protest. "With Kusanagi's help, we should be able to negotiate, and they'll be a lot more welcome to the Oracle's requests."

"Great!" Ai clapped his hands together. "When do we start?"

Yusaku gazed outside the window where the morning sun gave him full view of the lines of Hanoi soldiers rushing about the perimeter of the Crystarium, likely mobilizing as quickly as possible for that small window of only a few hours. What got his attention were the amaro launch towers. It appeared that the operation was going to involve Hanoi soldiers dropping from the sky by amaro. He could do something with that.

The Mystel reached out for his brand new greatsword, tempered black like the first one and forged from steel to complement his small build. He made a mental note to thank the blacksmith who made it. And… perhaps he should thank Revolver for being so observant.

"Ai, you know where Takeru and Kusanagi are?"

Ai shifted uneasily at the question. "Uh… I can try."

"I want you to relay a message for me…"

* * *

Kusanagi gaped at Ai like he had grown three heads, and Takeru looked like he had never been more stressed in his life.

"He wants us to WHAT?"

"Uh, don't get too mad at me," Ai raised his hands in defeat. "Half of this was Yusaku's idea, too."

"So… let me get this straight," Takeru counted each of the points on his fingers. "First, we steal some Hanoi Guard uniforms, then we infiltrate the squads headed for Laxan Loft, and then we rescue the Blue Maiden, reportedly captive in Laxan Loft, and make a run for the greatwood?"

"Yeah, that's about right," Ai nodded.

"Well, getting out of our quarters is easy," Takeru hummed along. "The Hanoi never placed any restrictions on us aside from not entering Revolver's quarters. It's Yusaku who's going to have a harder time."

"He never exactly specified how," Ai shrugged. "Want me to go back and ask him?"

"No, it's fine," Takeru sighed. "Let's just knock some guys out. They have extra uniforms in stock anyways."

This boy was rather impressively well-adjusted, he observed. Ai imagined that Yusaku had roped them into wilder situations before. Kusanagi, on the other hand, was the complete opposite.

"This is insane," He gave both of them a withering look. "This means we're running straight to the woods without stopping. We might not be able to come back."

For someone who was probably more than capable of handling a long journey, Ai wasn't sure why Kusanagi was overreacting over this. "So?"

"What does that mean for Jin?" Oh, that boy who looked like his younger brother under some affliction? "I can't keep him safe and take care of the rest of you in the woods!"

"Wait, he can't stay in the Crystarium?" Ai asked, confused why Kusanagi would deny his little brother the best medical attention at the present moment.

"I'd trust the Hanoi to take care of my brother over my corpse," Kusanagi snarled. Ah, so he held a grudge like Yusaku did. "We have to get him out of here, in case the Hanoi Guard get upset with us."

It was sensible to worry about the well being of one's own brother who's had bad experiences with the Hanoi, Ai lamented to himself, but he had to say, Kusanagi was a bit too uptight about this. They shouldn't be immensely worried about the Hanoi retaliating. From what Yusaku had explained to him, it didn't seem like their own agenda conflicted with the Hanoi Guard's, Revolver's, whoever it was. If they went and eliminated every Lightwarden, they weren't causing any problems now, were they? It wasn't like the Crystarium was keeping up pretenses of peace with Soltis anymore.

"I think we could get in touch with Kiku," Takeru suggested after a pause. "She can bring Salamangreat over, and take Jin back to Clearmelt."

"Really?" Kusanagi pulled back, unsure about the offer. "You can do that?"

"Grandfather will understand. He'll give the Hanoi a hard time if they get too rowdy."

"You mean well, Takeru, but…" Kusanagi pursed his lips. "How are we going to be sure that the Hanoi Guard won't threaten us with Jin?"

"It shouldn't be a problem," Takeru's smile turned a little devious. "The Hanoi Guard can't hurt Jin, even if we leave. If anything happens to Jin, not that I ever wish for it, you know Yusaku wouldn't take it lying down."

"That's… fair," Kusanagi nodded reluctantly. "I… suppose this can work."

"Then we shouldn't worry too much, right?" said Ai. "We're the ones with some bargaining power here!"

Kusanagi took one long-suffering sigh, thumbing the grimoire at his side. "If we get banished from the Crystarium for this, I don't know how I'm going to tell Kiku and Takeru's grandparents."

"You'll be fine," Takeru gave him a reassuring pat, although the worry on his face was also clear as day. "The Hanoi may not like us, but they do like my grandparents."

* * *

1 To explain some "lore", Yusaku's got shit ability at manipulating his own aether/magic, so in game terms, he's walled off from learning a lot of higher level abilities. Without Ai to "patch up" a few things, it would have been impossible to use skills that require a mastery of using one's aether beyond just blasting aether everywhere. At least this way, Yusaku knows his basic rotations very well and makes everything better by gymnastics.

2 The interchange of Blue Maiden, Blue Angel, and Oracle of Light in this adaptation is deliberate to demonstrate how the people view Aqua differently depending on location and station. I think it would make sense for a historical figure to have multiple monikers.

3 In case I didn't make it clear or I don't bother to explain this in the future, Kiyoshi = Crystal Exarch #1. Ryoken = Revolver = Crystal Exarch #2.

4 In case anyone's curious as to what Ryoken's gift to Yusaku looks like, it's the [Scion Traveler's Set](https://ffxiv.gamerescape.com/wiki/Scion_Traveler%27s_Set), to fit with the whole "Warrior of Darkness" theme. While it's built with the purpose to conceal his face, Yusaku is going without the cool hood and visor for most of the time. It looks like it'd take a long time to make, but I have no sense of time or pacing anymore. Maybe Ryoken had this in the works for the longest time and is very opportunistic.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So was that dense and confusing? Or was it dense and confusing? I really don't know great of a job I'm doing so I ended up repeating the same points again five different times.
> 
> 12/6/19: Added more dialogue between Ai and Yusaku so Ai makes a deal with Yusaku.


	6. the oracle's lament

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> While in Soltis' captivity, Aqua remembers how she met Queen, her life as an inactive Oracle, and the deadly premonition that spurs her to leave Soltis. Meanwhile, Yusaku and company enact their plan to rescue her.
> 
> Content Warning: Moderate body horror for graphic depiction of a sin eater's transformation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you for sticking with me through my worldbuilding mess. I'm going to try adding basic summaries at the beginning of each chapter for easier understanding. I apologize if this and the footnotes seem excessive or dry, but I'm just covering my bases at this point and dumping as much as I can before I hopefully can go back to revise things.
> 
> To those wondering if Miyu was in this story, she goes by Aqua in the greater portion of the story because she is a reincarnation of Aqua and is addressed as such (as explained in Chapter 4), but she will be renamed Miyu in the later portions. I kept my promise.

♬ | Paradisaical Predicaments - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GET8ax8uWXk) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

_"We're almost there, almost home..."_

_The words burned in Aqua's throat as she struggled not to collapse under the weight of the boy she was carrying. For all the dead weight he was, he really shouldn't have been so difficult to carry, but she herself had hardly been able to eat since they escaped from the Crystal Tower. Despite her own desires to preserve herself and leave the boy behind, Aqua chose to stay and drag him across every stretch of land between them and Soltis._

_By some miracle, the two of them had been able to escape captivity and take an amaro that had been so helpfully left out for them to fly away on. Aqua hadn't needed to give the creature any instruction on where to go, it already knew to go straight for the island. But it didn't stay with them and departed as soon as they got off its back, likely to return to its owner, their savior._

_Never in her life had Aqua ever been in Kholusia before, but this boy did. In the short time he was able to speak at all in their escape, he had shared with her that his parents lived in a village called Amity just outside the gates of Soltis. It was not a very glamorous life compared to the free citizens of Soltis, he had said, but the people there were earnest and lived life as best they could. But now that the experiments had taken his voice and his mind, Aqua had little clue about how to find this village. She had best hope they reached a fishing village along the coast before any creatures reached them._

_The boy in her arms groaned at the discomfort of his feet dragging across the dirt. Aqua could feel his heartbeat faltering under the perpetual sunlight beating down on their backs. His core aether, as far as she could sense it, was in utter shambles and littered with fragments of corrupted aether, probably from the countless times that those experiments had torn it apart and sewn him back together again. Aqua herself had managed to endure the treatment, for what reason she wasn't sure herself. She had always considered herself a resilient one, for she was still fit enough to walk when freed, but she wouldn't be surprised if the nature of her own aether had changed, too._

_"…. y…"_

_Aqua nearly dropped the boy in shock and quickly laid him down along the sand to check on him. She rolled him onto his side in case he needed to cough up the food they had foraged back in the woods._

_"Are you all right?" She shook him by the shoulder. "Water? Food? Anything?"_

_The boy's gaze drifted to her hands on his shoulder, and he weakly batted them away._

_"Get… away…"_

_"What are you saying?" Aqua pleaded. "I can't just leave you! You have a home to return to!"_

_"N…. No…"_

_For the first time in the past two days, Aqua heard a bloodcurdling scream shake his feeble body, and the boy clawed at his heart. He hacked and coughed into the dirt, and when he rolled away, Aqua could see he had left behind a puddle of white, marble bile. He raised his head again to meet her eyes, but she saw only the whites of his eyes as they slowly turned into glass._

_Aqua shrieked in alarm and scrambled away from the boy, frightened beyond belief yet still reluctant to leave him for dead._

_More of the same white bile began to ooze out of the boy's eyes, his nose, his mouth. Even parts of his face began to chip away like cracked porcelain and give way to more of the revolting substance. Within seconds, the boy was covered from head to toe in blinding white light, and his body began to contort itself and shift until he was human no longer, but a feathered cocoon._

_Aqua was paralyzed by the fear that struck her every time she saw the eater's cocoon budge and shake under the stress and sickening crunch of her former companion's painful transformation. When the cocoon burst in a brilliant display of white feathered wings, Aqua soon found herself coming to face with a fully grown sin eater on its hind legs, its skin warped to resembled the plate armor. There was little left of her friend, only the flesh of an otherworldly creature. [1]_

_"Ah…"_

_She couldn't bring herself to speak. No matter how much Aqua wanted to run while she had the chance, her legs couldn't obey her mind. The eater's oppressive, corrupted aether that had overtaken her friend's soul was starting to crawl into hers as well. Her heart faltered at the hopeless realization that even if she did try to flee, the sin eater would catch her and put her through the same gruesome metamorphosis. Nowhere to run and nowhere to hide on this cold, desolate seaside… Nowhere…_

_"I've sighted her!"_

_A fireball hurtled over her head and hit the eater square in the chest, prompting it to howl at the intrusion._

_"Hold it off!"_

_"For the Oracle!"_

_A squad of knights rushed past Aqua and gave everything they had to fend off the newborn monster, while one pair of knights came to her aid and dropped a fleece cloak onto her shivering body._

_"How is she? The Oracle?"_

_The knight tending to her wounds didn't look up._

_"She might be in dire straits, in addition to shock. We need to take her back immediately."_

_For a moment, Aqua felt a small shred of hope return, but that all went away when the sin eater raised its talons and ran them through the first line of knights and tossed their bodies aside like ragdolls across the beach and into the sea behind it._

_"Damn! How fast will the general get here?"_

_"She's on her way as fast as she can! Hold the front line!"_

_The next crowd of knights met the same fate._

_"No! Keep going!"_

_"Damnit," the knights closest to her stood up and drew their swords. "We must keep the girl safe!"_

_Aqua wanted to cry out to them for foolishly charging in to protect her, but no sound came out of her throat. They must have known this wasn't working. Why were they still trying so hard to fight the sin eater to protect just some little girl like her?_

_The sin eater reared its ugly head to face the last of the knights who had come to her rescue, ready to wreak more havoc in their ranks. But before it could raise a finger against them, a shower of arrows rained down on it and forced it to back away. What followed after was likely the first time in a while that Aqua had witnessed something so remarkable, so powerful._

_A woman dressed in all warlike finery stood before her, her white cape billowing in the gusts coming in from the sea. Axe in hand, she shrouded herself in a thick layer of aether that extended to the edge of her blade. Flanking her was a steady line of mages and archers poised at the ready to shoot the eater if it dared to take another step against them._

_But a creature such as a sin eater didn't care who it was fighting. It locked eyes with the warrior and instantly recognized the wealth of aether exuding out of her and barreled forward by instinct to feast and devour the light. The knights fled from its trajectory until this woman was the only thing left between Aqua and certain death. Just when the eater was within a hair's breadth, the warrior swung her axe clean across the sin eater's throat, slaying it instantly._

_In its folly, the eater dashed itself into the cliffside and brought down an avalanche of loose rocks that pinned it down onto the floor. The other soldiers rushed out of the way to avoid the falling debris and escape the inevitable flood of Light that would soon follow._

_Aqua couldn't even spare a second to blink. So this was the strength of the general of Soltis._

_"Prepare to evacuate immediately and cordon off the area of corruption," The warrior turned to the nearest knight in her vicinity._

_"Yes, general! And the Oracle?"_

_"I will take care of her."_

_Aqua was stuck where she sat on the ground as the woman turned around and regarded her with an expression that bordered on motherly. She didn't flinch when the woman drew her into her arms. All tension was drained from Aqua's body, and she leaned into the touch._

_"At last," the woman held her close to her bosom, protecting the girl's frail body from the relentless Light. "You have been found, dear Oracle. You cannot imagine how long we've been searching for you…"_

_The crest of Soltis was emblazoned in Aqua's mind as her mind drifted into darkness._

* * *

♬ | Tears in the Rain by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQp9_IHra7k) | Spotify

Aqua woke with a start at the sound of the airship bumping against the side of a wall. They had been posted here for a solid day or so, but the soldiers hadn't bothered her ever since they took her cudgel away and bound her wrists and ankles. The position she was left in was thoroughly uncomfortable, so she had tried to pass the time through sleep and idle, dangerous thoughts, her scaled tail sweeping slowly against the cold steel floor.

Speaking of idle thoughts… Aqua drifted back to the memory of the day that Queen had found her and suddenly changed her life. Before her unfortunate stay within the Crystal Tower, she had only been a child living in the outskirts of Lakeland up until a mysterious man shrouded in black and red cloaks took her away and shut her away along with many other children. What happened in those six, dark months was better left unsaid, for her own sanity.

After her miraculous escape and rescue, Queen had been declared Aqua her charge and the new official Oracle of Light. How they knew was not entirely clear to her, only that she resembled all the Blue Angels that came before her, hair a royal blue and eyes so empty and infinite like the sea. As Oracle, Aqua was sure she was supposed to foretell the movements of the prophesied Warrior of Darkness and be ready to aid them when the time drew near. When she asked Queen if she were to do her part in the Sol army and help find the Warrior of Darkness, her guardian shook her head.

"There is no need for that," Queen said as she stroked and combed Aqua's hair one morning. "The Warrior of Darkness was only a flight of fancy someone said to embellish that tale. We are at peace now, see?"

No longer required to fight sin eaters and become the famed protector of Soltis like her previous incarnations had done, Aqua continued to sit in her quarters like a caged bird.

But an inactive Oracle was not to be an entirely useless one. Queen afforded all expenses to provide her charge with the finest education, a complete departure from whatever she was expected to learn in her quaint hometown village. The most celebrated instructors came at her beck and call, the latest court musicians had the honor to perform at her request, the finest seamstresses kept her wardrobe well stocked every season, every ocassion. Even for her frequent night terrors and phantom pains, chirurgeons would gladly prescribe her all kinds of treatments and wished her a good recovery.

The only things she couldn't ask for was to go outside or enter the main court where the mayor himself and the rest of Soltis' upper class conducted business.

In her captivity, the only people she formed any lasting connections with in Soltis were Queen, Lord Kitamura, the Queen's adjutant, and most important of all, the adjutant's younger sister. When Aqua first met Aoi Zaizen, she was elated to meet someone her own age. The first few months they had known each other had been awkward, with Aoi not daring to breach the wall of propriety that stood between them, but at Aqua's behest, they broke down that barrier with ease. The girl was sometimes a bit of a cynic, but she was still an earnest soul, one willing to don the garments of Blue Angel in Aqua's stead.

Yet all this, and Aqua felt something was missing. At best, she was considered the princess of Soltis, and at worst, she was an accessory to the institutions that shaped the city-state. Everything she had been taught about her role as the Blue Angel, the Oracle of Light, felt so contradictory to what she was doing now. If, Aqua wondered, Soltis no longer needed her anymore aside from being a pretty face, why was it that she was reborn again?

Just as Aqua resigned herself, she was visited by a vision.

In her fitful sleep, Aqua imagined a Mystel boy no older than herself lying among the bodies of many others under a weeping wisteria tree. When she summoned the courage to approach him, she noticed he was deathly pale, as if he were dead. His companions were in a similar unmoving state. She didn't know them, but Aqua felt her eyes well up in tears, and she grieved for these strangers.

"Aqua."

A familiar voice called out to her, and Aqua spun around and came to face with a Mystel man in black armor. He planted his sword in the sea of wisteria petals between them and regarded her with a warm smile. Aqua was certain she knew this man somewhere in another life, another time.

"My good friend," the man spoke. "The Warrior of Darkness has come."

"But where?" she had asked. "Who is he? What does he look like?"

The Mystel shook his head. "My friend, he lies there right before you."

Soon, reality brought her back to her bed, leaving her with the answers she needed this entire time. This vision was Aqua's call to action.

The following weeks after she received this vision, Aqua desperately pleaded for anyone to listen so she could set out to warn the Warrior of Darkness of his potential demise as any good Oracle should. But her words fell to deaf ears. They said her visions were not visions after all, only a product of nightmares that have been plaguing her ever since her abduction ten years ago. The Warrior of Darkness didn't exist, and the Ignis were dead (save for her, of course).

Hearing these words from Queen and her instructors was one thing, but hearing Aoi dismiss her warnings were another. Perhaps it was because she was under the watchful of her brother and the rest of Sol army, but Aqua had faith that Aoi, of all people, would believe her. She had been too presumptuous of their bond, it seemed.

So what better option did she have than to speak to Ema Bessho, one of the few hunters who would even come close to Soltis? The mercenary was one of the rare people who took her words seriously, as the Viis, both inside and outside isolation, were devout believers in the teachings of the Night's Blessed. Mixed with a promise of good payment and additional persuasion, Aqua had secured herself a way out of Soltis without Queen, without the Sol Army, and without Aoi.

Their escape had been largely successful. Aoi's brother had given his best to chase after them, but they were able to leave the island and reach the mainland, where they could find the Warrior of Darkness she saw in her vision.

Ema had suggested that they visit the Exarch themselves, but Aqua was quick to reject the idea. She didn't think she was ready to go anywhere near the Crystal Tower, not now. The mercenary didn't ask her why (perhaps she already knew), but she didn't contest her on the decision and instead suggested the next best thing, the villages in the great woods. Now this, Aqua was fine with that.

They were careful and stayed out of sight of sin eaters and any of Soltis patrolling the skies. They didn't stay long in the villages that were kind to give them shelter and made ready to leave as soon as they were done resting. Neither of them were well equipped to handle large crowds of enemies, nor could they trust anyone to serve that role for them at this point of the journey.

All was fine and well until night was unexpectedly returned to Lakeland. Aqua was intent on setting out to find the Warrior of Darkness, but Ema cautioned her from breaking out of their secrecy.

"Your excitement is greatly appreciated," the Viis had told her. "But we cannot move at this time of day. Let us wait before we approach the people of the Crystal Tower."

"But Ema, I-"

"We must wait."

Despite Ema's warnings, Aqua had been eager, too eager, to slip out at the dead of night while her new guardian was sleeping. And by her own foolishness, she fell right into the hands of the Sol army who had been lurking in the woods in search for her and the Warrior of Darkness. Aqua had thought herself an accomplished fighter perhaps competent enough to try her hand at hunting, but all the practice Queen had put her through was nothing compared to a seasoned squad of knights.

So here she was.

Aqua wondered just how upset Ema was that her charge had run off only to get herself captured by the very people she wanted to avoid. She wasn't at all prepared to face old friends again after her decision to escape from Soltis to embark on her quest to answer her premonitions about the Ignis, about the Warrior of Darkness, about the remaining children who been with her in that tower ten years ago. Ema, always the mercenary she was, was always willing to accept her cryptic answers about her plans, but not those three.

Perhaps Ema's anger wasn't what was the scariest, but Queen's, Akira's and Aoi's. In fact, she remembered clearly how Akira looked at her when a soldier yanked on her chains and forced her to kneel before him. No words were exchanged, but the abject scorn on his face told all.

They could kill her, Aqua thought darkly. She was the famed Oracle of Light, after all, destined to be reborn over and over until the primordial light was expelled from this world. If they did not forgive her transgressions, Soltis could do away with her and start anew with the next fresh faced girl Soltis could find. It wasn't like Queen ever truly loved her as an individual. The Warrior of Darkness likely didn't need her and her grim visions, either. He did, after all, vanquish the primordial Light in one region already without her.

All Aqua could do now was tremble quietly as she sobbed under the hum of machinery.

* * *

♬ | Dangerous Words by Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kkPm-y5kPs) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

Luring the Hanoi Guard posted at his door was child's play. With a polite knock on the door and simple, benign request, Yusaku had him in the room and our cold in just a few seconds. Hopefully, Revolver wouldn't be too offended that one of his own men slept his shift away in his superior's quarters.

"Did you have to knock him out?" Ai watched Yusaku as he dragged the man's sleeping form across the room and onto the bed.

"You rather we jump out the window into the courtyard?" Yusaku snapped testily and got no retort. Minutes ago, he had contemplated doing just that and counting on Ai's abilities to make sure his aether didn't go kaput before he hit the ground. But risking his life for such a risky move probably wasn't worth it.

He had found a stash of glamour prisms in one of the open drawers, although what for, he wasn't about to speculate. Yusaku cast it upon himself so now he was no longer wearing his new black armor, but the uniform of the Hanoi Guard. It wasn't very attractive, just simple and secure chainmail and the banner of the Hanoi coupled with a standard issue helmet and boots. At least it wasn't as garish and flashy like that of the Sol army's, but Yusaku was definitely going to remove the glamour once they were out of Laxan Loft. And for that, he stole a glamour dispeller from Revolver's desk in case.

Yusaku slipped out of the room and closed the door behind him quietly, still keeping an eye on the unconscious guard as he went. He looked around on his floor and saw no one else. If he stayed on the upper floors, he should be able to avoid the additional guards posted below and reach the launching towers without trouble.

"Go find the others and see how they're doing," he suggested to Ai, who popped out of sight most conveniently. Alone once more, Yusaku ran along the narrow walkways to his destination, blending right in with the rest of the frantic Hanoi soldiers rushing to their positions.

The soldiers gave him no trouble at the nearest launching station and let Yusaku onto the upper levels, where only one amaro was left behind kicking at the wooden planks at its feet. The creature gave him a suspicious look as he approached it, clearly aware that he wasn't its original rider. Yusaku had to coax and stroke its head for a good ten minutes before it came to the conclusion that he meant no harm.

"Hey, Deacon!"

Yusaku stood up straight and turned around stiffly to greet who he assumed was supposed to be his superior officer.

"I was wondering where you'd gone," the Hanoi guard scolded him. "You're running behind. The rest of the squad's flown off without you."

"I apologize," Yusaku bowed his head to avoid looking at the man. It was far too early to be caught now. "I'll catch up as soon as I get the amaro ready to launch."

"Then you should be taking this," the guard thrust a canvas bag into his arms. "Captain's plan is to fly over Laxan Loft and release a distraction on the Sol soldiers. It'll help the squads from the Imperative fly in."

Yusaku gave a brisk nod and gave a half-hearted Hanoi's salute. The other soldier didn't mind his lack of effort and was already running off on their next errand.

Curious about the contents in the bag he was given, Yusaku pushed the drawstrings open and peered inside. Upon recognition what it was, Yusaku closed the bag right away, mindful not to inhale any of the fine cloud of white dust that flew near his face.

"Sleeping dust," he murmured, and he turned to his assigned amaro to tie the bag onto its saddle. So the Hanoi planned to rain this all over Laxan Loft and put most of the soldiers to sleep before dropping in. A fairly good way to cut losses by having less men to fight from the start.

"Looks like pretty strong sleeping dust, too," Ai noted, choosing to appear again beside him while no one was watching them. "Better do it right or else you'll miss our cue to escape."

Yusaku finished saddling the amaro then looked back at the Ignis. "Where's everyone else?"

"They're on another launching station here," Ai pointed to the northwest side of the Crystarium. "Same duties as you."

That made things a lot easier then, Yusaku thought as he led the amaro out near the edge of the platform. He could see the other squads taking off on their own mounts. If he followed where they were going, he could blend in without anyone suspecting a thing.

"Tell them to take off as soon as they're ready," Yusaku instructed the Ignis while he stuck his foot in one of the stirrups. "I'm going ahead."

"Really?" Ai wrinkled his nose at the order. "I'm not your messenger bird."

"You want us to rescue your friend or not?" Yusaku reminded him.

"Fine! Fine!"

* * *

"We can't let you step outside, milord," one soldier blocked Akira from going outside. "Something's happening outside."

"Then tell me what's going on," he growled. Today was just inconvenience after inconvenience, and he couldn't tolerate being tested any longer.

"There's Hanoi soldiers flying overhead," one of his men twiddled his thumbs.

Akira had foreseen the Hanoi would be so emboldened by the death of their Lightwarden, but not on this scale. They were going all out because the Sol Army had something that they wanted: the Oracle. It seems that their scouting efforts were sharper than expected.

"We need to secure the package," he said, quickly shoving aside the man in his way. He could handle a cloud of sleeping dust far better than any of these soldiers. He ran down the bridge and into the nearby airship where the Oracle had been kept. Blood Shepherd didn't need to be told twice to follow after him, even dragging along the only soldier equipped with a staff.

There, Akira fought to keep any semblance of panic from rising to his face when he came across the unconscious forms of the guards posted at the gangplank. He rushed in and went straight for the cabin where he had last seen Aqua.

To no one's surprise, the girl was gone. The chains that bound her were picked apart, and not a single trace of her savior was left behind. The guards outside weren't dead and the intruder didn't do anything to sabotage the machinery, so this was not the work of Hanoi, but Ema Bessho.

Something ugly burned at the pit of Akira's stomach, loathe was he to admit it. He never truly understood the beliefs she carried with her from her home village in Fannow, but Ema must have known that he meant the best for Aqua. She should have reconsidered the choice to free Aqua here at this moment and drag her through the chaos that was happening outside. What if Aqua was caught in the crossfire between Hanoi and Soltis in this fortress? This was why he disliked nonbelievers of all kinds.

"They can't have gone far," Blood Shepherd spoke up as he inspected the broken lock on the cabin door. "Shall I clear out the rabble?"

The Crystarium absolutely could not get their hands on the Oracle, and neither could the Night's Blessed if one of their own would be so irresponsible as to endanger Aqua. Vermin such as they were not worthy of the Oracle.

"Do what you must."

* * *

1 Apologies for axing the Windy Kid for worldbuilding purposes. The form he ends up taking is similar to Forgiven Prejudice as pictured above, pretty high level, dangerous, and a bit odd to look at. I'm pretty sure Forgiven Prejudice was probably a dodo bird at the wrong place at the wrong time instead of a human, but the more horrific the better, I guess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was actually longer but got cut in half because it got too long. I might have to rewatch all of S1 to get into Akira's character again because I might have made him a lot more extreme than I should have. I spaced out his character so he considers Aqua/Miyu a member of his and Aoi's family, and he would be willing to break someone's spine for Miyu, too.


	7. shepherd and lamb

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku and company run into Ema and Aqua and have a tough time fighting the Blood Shepherd and Akira, but Revolver rescues them with a bit of misdirection. Lightning, not surprisingly dead, observes everything not really going according to plan, or is it?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was a difficult chapter to write because lots of fight scenes while contemplating revising major plot points. I talked myself into thinking it wasn't a good idea after all to give Jin a lighter consequence for the Lost Incident-equivalent of this AU. He's benched either way, so I might as well just take the low road and make Kusanagi more invested.
> 
> So heavy revisions are made to Jim's earlier speaking parts but if you want to not go back. TL;DR, Jin has essentially been growing less responsive because of the Lost Incident, and he's been displaying symptoms of affliction, corruption of one's aether caused by overexposure that can eventually turn a person into a sin eater. Kusanagi insists that Jin won't turn into a sin eater, but after Holminster, Revolver had arranged for Jin to be sent off bc affliction is currently irreversible, but Kusanagi sends Jin to stay with Kiku and Takeru's grandparents for the time being.

The sack of sleeping powder had long been emptied, and the first contingent of Hanoi soldiers had already entered Laxan Loft. It was time that Yusaku and Ai entered the fray and carry out their objective.

Yusaku dismounted his amaro upon the steps of the fortress and heeded the imposing gates that have been thrown open. He had staked out within its walls on various hunts, but never had he participated in such a full-scale battle. The realization of his inexperience kept him from running in blindly.

"Are you ready?" Ai was bouncing excitedly in his feet. "I'm ready."

With a flourish, Ai spun in place as well as his armor could allow him to and held out his hand. "Now, the Verse of the Living Shadow!"

Yusaku drew out the necessary aether from his heart and repeated what he had done the week earlier. He tilted his hand and poured it out onto Ai's hand, but the aether never reached Ai and fizzled out as soon as it left him.

Huh. Strange.

Ai looked over himself and then back to Yusaku in confusion.

"What happened?" he asked.

"I don't know," Yusaku tried to form anything with his aether, which worked just fine in his own hands. "I can't seem to perform that same technique you showed me in Holminster."

"Oh, that's just unfortunate," Ai huffed, upset that he wouldn't be able to participate in the action after all. "And I was looking forward to kicking some arse, too…"

Yusaku wasn't at all surprised. He had yet to master that verse by heart. Normally he could learn something by just watching it be performed once or through a quick study, but creating a simulacra with one's own aether was certainly a challenge. He would have to save the training for later.

"Then make sure I don't mess up while I fight," Yusaku ordered. "I can still do a lot more than usual even without that verse."

Even if he could, he didn't want to risk passing out like last time just for some advanced dark art.

A small squadron of soldiers ran past him, and Yusaku took the chance to follow them into the main courtyard.

Laxan Loft was in complete mayhem. Despite the plan to put the Sol army to sleep, there were still plenty of soldiers out and about to defend the camp from the invading Hanoi Guard. The Sol soldiers were vastly outnumbered, but they held well against the onslaught. They weren't considered the finest soldiers in Norvrandt for nothing.

Countless bodies, asleep or dead, were strewn across the stone floor. Yusaku did his best to avoid looking down at the floor where most of the carnage lay. This was no different from his hunts when a fight got too bloody. Yes, that should work...

"Hey, Yusaku?"

He hadn't realized he had drifted off until Ai started waving his hands in front of his face. He blinked a few times. Good thing he was standing at the gates claimed by the Hanoi Guard.

"Sorry," Yusaku apologized without thinking and proeeded up the cobbled steps.

Most of the Sol soldiers didn't pay him any attention, too busy being accosted by the Hanoi. Only until he edged closer to the steps did anyone notice him and try to fight him.

A stray arrow missed his face by mere inches, and Yusaku responded in kind with an arc of his sword and burst of aether from his free hand. The line of archers ducked behind their barricades, but when they came out to search for him again, he blended behind another squad of Hanoi guards and made his way to the other end of the courtyard.

"Yusaku!"

He looked aside where the voice had come from, and an unconscious Sol soldier was thrown at his feet. Someone was running at top speed straight at him and was showing no signs of stopping, even stepping over the poor soldier he took out moments ago. He didn't recognize who it was until he saw the white and red-streaked hair peeking out from under the helmet.

"Give me a hand!" Takeru hollered over the noise, and Yusaku obliged.

The hunter quickly knelt down and made his sword into a ramp, and Takeru ran and vaulted off of the blade. He somersaulted into the air and dropped a hard kick into a unsuspecting crowd of soldiers, both Sol and Hanoi. Yusaku couldn't see Takeru anymore in the crowd, but he could see the occasional splash of aether followed by a soldier flung into the air. For all the limitations he had, Takeru was always impressive in a fight.

"Such a fast learner and you still can't master that verse, huh," Ai said even as he looked impressed at how effective the maneuver was.

Yusaku scoffed and struck down a soldier charging at him with an axe. A welcome shielding spell was cast upon him when another companion catching up with him from behind.

"Glad to see you could make it," With a flick of a finger, Kusanagi sicced his familiar on the nearest Sol soldier. A Hanoi soldier was caught in the crossfire, but that was the least of his concerns.

"Hey, I thought I told you to look for my friend, not play around," Ai scolded him as best he could.

"Well, you were a little late so Takeru wanted to blow a little steam," Kusanagi shrugged. "He's been itching for a chance to fight something."

"Ugh, I'll just go… get him and tell him playtime's over," Ai groaned and walked off into the crowd, taking a Soltis soldier by surprise when he turned out to be intangible to swords.

Kusanagi considered Ai's exasperation. "What's with him?"

"He's upset because-" Yusaku paused to knock away a javelin meant for him. "I told him he's sitting this battle out."

"Oh, poor guy," At least Kusanagi made an effort to feel a bit sorry.

Yusaku looked up at the three airships docked at the parapets of the old fortress. They were all decked in the colors and sensibilities of Soltis, magenta and gaudy. Only they could afford to man and service such massive vessels all the way here.

"We need to get to those airships," Yusaku pointed his chin at them for Kusanagi. "The Blue Maiden should be held there."

"All right, let's get moving then," said Kusanagi. "Takeru and Ai can catch up later."

Yusaku hummed in agreement and was about to take a step forward when he heard a shrill cry directed at him. He turned around and saw a little entourage of soldiers, all in Sol colors, charging at them with lances out. In return, Yusaku channeled aether into his blade and swung a large arc at them, taken them all out in a single wave.

"Gods, they just keep coming!" Kusanagi complained as he took care of yet another group of soldiers behind Yusaku. "Hey, did you bring any dispellers? We can't be wearing this Hanoi stuff all the way to the woods."

Good thing he stole enough for everyone, Yusaku thought as he tossed a dispeller right into Kusanagi's hands.

* * *

♬ | High Treason - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q84AoPNkHj4) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

They never reached the airships as intended. As soon as they reached the foot of the stairs, they were treated to a Viis woman thrown bodily down the staircase. Purple hair and ears slipped out of her hood from the fall, and a pair of daggers bounced and clattered after her.

Kusanagi moved to help, but a girl was already running down to help with her healing cudgel. Neither of then looked like they were part of the Hanoi Guard or the Sol army, so what were two hapless adventurers doing here?

"Are you all right?" Kusanagi asked first. "I'm a scholar, so I can-"

"I'm good," the woman held up a hand to stop him. "Just slipped a little when someone shot me."

"Oh," Kusanagi reeled back, confused. "Oh good."

The woman struggled to her feet, but appeared mostly fine. The girl with the cudgel picked up her knives for her, to which the woman offered an appreciative smile. She then turned to Yusaku and Kusanagi and probed them over.

"You look like a good two pairs of hands," the woman raised an eyebrow, interested. "Why don't you help a girl or two out?"

"What are you offering?" Yusaku asked, vague but still open to the offer. They weren't expecting anything aside from a great deal of unguaranteed money.

"I am the Oracle's protector, so I can provide good compensation," The woman didn't speak further about herself, and both Kusanagi and Yusaku were taken aback. These were only words, but if she was as she claimed, then the girl next to her was in fact the Blue Maiden of legends herself.

Yusaku had never met the Blue Maiden before, so he stared a little longer than he should have. She looked as close as detailed in written accounts, but he didn't expect her eyes to look so blank and empty, just downright unsettling.

"How convenient," Kusanagi commented on the situation. "We were just here looking for the Oracle."

"Does that mean one of you is the Warrior of Darkness?" the Blue Maiden asked hastily, looking between Kusanagi and Yusaku.

"Lady Aqua," The woman chided her, but the girl didn't care how presumptuous she sounded.

"I know it's one of you!" Aqua pleaded. "I saw you in my premonitions, so you cannot lie!"

Yusaku wasn't about to answer her, because he could hardly accept such a title, but Kusanagi looked at him pointedly as if to answer her question. He didn't like the way how the Blue Maiden looked so hopeful as if he was going to play the hero properly because she was going to be disappointed fast. With a deep sigh, he nodded in affirmation.

"We're ready to lend our services to the Oracle," Yusaku said as his mind fleeted back to the deal he and Ai had formed.

"Then it's settled," Aqua's guardian was pleased. "Now, how about we-"

Yusaku felt a chill run down his spine, and he stepped forward, pulling Ema behind him and bringing the face of his sword up. A projectile hurtled into his blade and fizzled away when it bounced off, and Yusaku was relieved his instincts were correct. They lifted their gazes up at the head of the stairs and were instantly wary by the colors of Soltis.

A man in silver regalia stood tall above them, eyes scornful and gait steady as he descended down the stairs with purpose. His masked companion carried a similar sentiment in the way he brandished his gunblade at them. The Blue Maiden hid away, afraid to meet either men's eyes. [1]

"Blue Angel, no, Lady Aqua," spoke the man in silver, charmless and dry. "I've enough of your games. You will return to Soltis with us where Queen will be expecting you."

"N-No!" The suggestion struck a nerve in the girl. "I won't go back there… not back to that… cage!"

Displeased, the masked gunman aimed his blade and barrel at the Blue Maiden. Her protector quickly put herself between the threat and the girl. The knight turned to the woman with even more contempt than the last.

"And I'm disappointed in you, Ema Bessho," he said. "Queen and the rest of us in Soltis expected better from the Ghost of Kholusia."

That title. Yusaku realized that this woman was more than just simply some bodyguard for the Blue Maiden. It was said that one of the reasons Soltis withstood the threat of the Light for so long was because of such a Ghost of Kholsusia.

From records, Yusaku had assumed they were merely a role, a mask passed down many generations. But now that he learned that she was a wandering Viis, it made more sense why such a figure had appeared since the founding of Soltis. A Viis could live a hundred suns more than himself.

"Save your harsh words," Ema smiled bitterly in return. "Or has the mayor's words twisted you so, Akira?"

"Akira?" Yusaku spoke loud enough for only him and Kusanagi to hear. He found the name familiar but never attached a face to it before.

"I recall he works directly under the general of Soltis," Kusanagi suggested in the same hushed tone. "His armor suggests he's ranked rather high."

"Then that means we're in for a fight, and not a pleasant one," Yusaku directed everyone behind him to back up with his sword and away from their opponents, now at the end of the stairs.

His mind was already at work trying to estimate just how well he could defend himself and his party from both of these men. He had never engaged any renowned soldiers from Soltis, but his past altercations with Sol hunters were no laughing matter.

"Your luck has run out, thieves." The masked man's voice was amplified by the workings inside his metal mask.

"Show some restraint, Blood Shepherd," Akira warned him. "We need the Oracle alive, and I would like to apprehend these heretics. Lord Kitamura and Queen would want to make an example of them."

"Keep your guard up," Ema warned them, holding her knives closer to herself. "They're not your average soldiers from Soltis."

Yusaku kept the rogue's words in mind as he set himself awash in aether, unmended. Ai wasn't close with him, but the Ignis was most certainly working to keep his flow of aether running smoothly.

Kusanagi flipped to the next page of his codex and cast a shielding spell on all four of them. In Ema's case, he added a second shield, to her surprise.

"It's probably not much for you," he supplied. "But it should ward off the worst of the blows."

Ema tested the spell with a sharp undercut in the air, and hummed approvingly. Yusaku looked to Kusanagi in question of the strategy he was proposing.

"I'll be working double to keep you and her alive," he explained. "I can't expect you to take either of them on your own."

Yusaku would thank Kusanagi for the sentiment if the situation wasn't potentially life threatening. Both of them knew that they shouldn't be gambling on Ema lasting on the front when she clearly wasn't built for it. At least they could buy time for Takeru and Ai to jump in, and they would have a more balanced team against Akira and Blood Shepherd.

The Blue Maiden cast a slew of stones at Blood Shepherd, capturing his attention. In turn, Ema shadow stepped behind him and their fight begun. Yusaku spotted Akira charging straight at the Blue Maiden, both sword and shield out. He sprang forth to engage the man and keep him as far from his intended target as possible.

Akira may have appeared the standard trained paladin, but he was clever. Yusaku could tell that he was planning to do whatever to throw him off balance because a sword and shield ensemble had far more dexterity than a greatsword. Even more so, Akira was a man of method, constantly trying to pierce his armor at the most fatal points. Yusaku had never fought anyone who came at him with an intent to kill. Not even Revolver, for all his aggressions, ever did entertain the thought of trying to end him in their regular scuffles.

"Heretic," Akira taunted him as they exchanged blows. "You dare stand between the Oracle and her sworn protectors?"

"Protectors?" Yusaku doubted him, stepping aside from a slash for his shoulder. "Some protectors you are, threatening violence on the Blue Maiden."

"She is simply misguided," the knight was cold. "And as per Queen's orders, I am to discipline her if need be. Just as I will do to you."

Yusaku's frown deepened. Akira's choice of words didn't sound at all comforting. There was little wonder why the Blue Maiden was so adamant to escape his influence. He had little tolerance for such authorities.

Akira maneuvered around him and raised the pommel of his sword, likely in an attempt to smash Yusaku's wrists and weaken his grip on his own sword. Yusaku stepped forward just enough for the knight to miss by a hair's breadth. He spotted a brief opening and moved to exploit it, but Akira's shield came down on Yusaku's sword. What Akira didn't foresee was the sheer force of Yusaku's flood of aether.

Both drew back from each other and gauged the other for any hint of weakness. Neither of them looked any worse for wear just yet.

"You're surprisingly able, for a someone of the Hanoi Guard," Akira muttered.

"Do not associate me with them," Yusaku warned him with a snarl, parrying yet another slash.

"But yet you fight as if you are beholden to your Crystarium," Akira snapped back. "Mark my words, you will know how-"

A well placed pair of greaves crashed into Akira's shoulders, and a whirlwind landed at Yusaku's side.

"Sorry I'm late!" Takeru flashed a shaky grin.

"You're just on time," Yusaku said, and he briefed Takeru about who they were facing and who they found most succinctly. He spoke fast, but Takeru caught every word.

"So that's her, is it?" Takeru looked over his shoulder to where the rest of the party was supposed to be. "Drahn in blue?"

"Yes."

"Huh... She's certainly taller than Kiku, that's for sure."

Probably not by much, Yusaku thought. While Drahn men, as Revolver irritatingly was, were absurdly tall once they came of age, Drahn women remained petite and rarely grew to half the size of their counterparts.

"Looks like Kusanagi's in trouble," Takeru said, looking over again. Yusaku couldn't afford to look back and took his word for it.

"Go help him," He told him. "I can handle this one myself."

A solemn nod, and Takeru left his side with a daring leap. Ai took his place, his hold on Yusaku's aether ever the more stronger.

"Missed me?" Ai asked, expecting a witty retort, but Yusaku had other pressing matters at the moment.

He fended off an unexpectedly sly swipe at the head from Akira. The man had thought to take advantage of his talking to get a scratch in. Yusaku needed to take him out soon so he could back up Kusanagi and the others against Blood Shepherd.

Ai ran circles around the knight, edging to close for comfort had he been real flesh. The teasing irritated Akira immensely, and he began attacking not only Yusaku, but Ai, too. To play along, Ai ducked and flipped out of the way at an admirably nimble pace that had Akira sputtering.

"Cat got your tongue?" Ai made an intentionally cheeky smile.

"I care not for you!" Akira quickly thrust his sword at Ai's heart, but much to his shock, he found no purchase.

For once, Yusaku was thankful that Ai was incorporeal. He seized the opportunity to knock Akira's arms out of the way, leaving his chest plate exposed. With an aether-concentrated fist, Yusaku drove it into the man's gut and heard the squeak of dented steel. He drew back the right distance for his sword, but so did Akira despite how winded he was. Ai strutted over to Akira without a hint of fear in his eyes, delighting in the way the knight's face lost color.

"Who are you?!" Akira shouted at the shade as he took another useless swing right through him. "Identify yourself!"

"The name's Ai," Ai gave a dramatic bow. "Your worst nightmare!"

Akira considered the shade for a moment, thoroughly confused, but somehow, something seemed to have clicked in his head.

"Are you the one they call the Warrior of Darkness, then?" Akira voiced his suspicions, and neither Yusaku nor Ai answered him. They didn't know just how much Akira knew about the Ignis or how much weight he put in the tale of a savior. Even if he did know, their response was not likely to change the man's mind.

"Your silence says enough," Akira gave an unsatisfied huff. "In which case, I will treat you as you are meant to be — pathetic worms."

He resumed his flurry of attacks again, ignoring Ai's presence this time. Yusaku kept up with the tempo of his swings, but he could feel the stress of the onslaught was putting on his arms and legs. Perhaps he might not have the strength to fight toe to toe with Blood Shepherd after this. He had to end this soon before fatigue set in and start making plans to escape. Yusaku might not have had smoke bombs on him, but he was betting that Ema did.

A shot rang out, followed by a pained cry. Yusaku didn't have time to figure out whose voice it was. He lunged forward against Akira's shield, and dug his heel into the knight's exposed chest, then a sharp kick.

Within the brief moment he had his opponent off balance, Yusaku glanced back and saw Ema sprawled on her back, grievously wounded and struggling to breath. His mask missing a good chunk of one eye, Blood Shepherd stalked towards her and reloaded his gunblade with aether for a finishing blow.

"No!" Aqua cried and tried to recite a quick incantation, but the blowback of the shot that took out Ema swept the girl off her feet.

"Aqua!" Ai left Yusaku's side, even if his efforts to intervene would be in vain, but in doing so, everything began to fall apart.

Yusaku felt the instant snap of an already fraying thread between himself and his own aether. He bit hard on his lower lip to avoid doubling over from the pain, but his moment of weakness left enough room for error. [2]

The full force of Akira's shield slammed into his side and sent him staggering. Yusaku attempted to recover quickly, but he couldn't bring his sword back in front of him in time to block. The shield bashing into that same side again, smacking Yusaku to the ground. He felt the pinpick of Akira's sword pressing into the back of his neck to keep him from fighting back. The pounding that traveled up to his head wasn't helping.

"Fool," the man taunted him. "Know your folly."

With as little space he was allowed to move his head, Yusaku saw that Ema was still down with a distraught Aqua trying her damnest to treat the heavy wounds. Takeru and Kusanagi had turned their attentions on protecting Ema and the Oracle, but Blood Shepherd had overpowered them much like Akira had done to him. Ai was nowhere to be found. For all their confidence, they were sorely outmatched by trained soldiers.

The rush of energy that kept Yusaku going all this time left him struck with the fear of actually dying, or worse, taken captive by an authority of any kind.

Before he could act, Yusaku heard the sickening sound of steel meeting flesh, and the pressure of the sword on his neck lifted away. Akira cried out and stumbled over Yusaku into a small puddle of his own blood judging by the newfound wound blooming in his shoulder.

Yusaku scrambled out from under Akira's cape, picking up his greatsword along the way. A shot aimed at his feet caught him off guard and he tripped back onto the ground again. He was under the impression that the two gunshots came from the same person, but the sound of clashing steel said otherwise.

Ignoring the terrible pain residing in his head, Yusaku whipped his head around and got a face full of dust kicked into his face. The person engaged in a struggle with Blood Shepherd had been blown back several feet, but he recovered quickly and held his gunblade at the ready. He recognized the white coat flapping from the impact.

"Revolver?" Yusaku fought down the cough building in his chest. The man in question paid him no heed and kept his eyes trained on Blood Shepherd.

Akira didn't get up from the ground, nursing the deep cut that was drenching his entire sleeve red.

"Are you the wretch responsible for this?" Akira snarled at him and waved to the general chaos happening around them.

"So what if I am?" Revolver said with a smirk. If he was worried about losing to a soldier of Soltis, he certainly wasn't showing it. He and Blood Shepherd stalked around each other in a slow circle while they reloaded the barrel of their gunblades with aether.

Akira threw down a bloodied shield at the ground along with the rest of what little patience he had left. Despite the unpleasant way his injured arm hung loosely off his shoulder, he still had enough fight in him to keep his sword poised forward.

"You will regret standing between me and the Oracle, mongrel of Hanoi," he threatened Revolver, but his words were most certainly directed at the rest of them.

Yusaku planted the sharper end of his sword into the ground and struggled to pull himself to his feet. He didn't know what possessed Revolver to step in and defend them after their flagrant disobedience, but he had to help. He knew Revolver's level of skill well enough, and he was not going to hold his own against both Akira and Blood Shepherd.

He stepped forward, but was interrupted by a ring of arcane circles that sprang around Revolver's feet. He heard surprised noises behind him and saw his friends, along with the Oracle and her keeper, also entrapped in the same rings. Yusaku was too stunned by this unknown spell to move or even check if he was put in a magic ring himself.

Revolver spun around and caught Yusaku by the arm, likely planning to take him down with the rest of them. Yusaku was inclined to tear away from him, but the grip on his shoulder was solid. He only had less than a second to see Revolver's lips curl into an unpleasant grin, and the strangest thing took them by surprise.

Yusaku felt a sharp tug in his chest, his legs weightless, right before he was yanked off of the ground. A bright flash, and he was floating, flying in a dark void with the occasional splash of clouds passing through him. Yusaku didn't even have a chance to question this when a fistful of dirt smashed into his face. His legs then caught up with him promptly onto the bed of leaves he fell upon.

Ignoring the pounding in his head, Yusaku clambered up onto his feet and recognized the pale, purple hue of the leaves. He was back in Lakeland again.

Yusaku heard the sounds of the rest of his party getting flung out onto the forest floor and ran over to help them.

Takeru was the first to get up, eyes wildly darting about.

"We're… we're outside?" he stumbled over his words.

"Must have been some teleportation spell," Kusanagi groaned. "I would have liked a warning!"

Yusaku kept thinking on it. A teleportation spell was a good guess, but that was where Kusanagi could be wrong. Such spells could never be performed en masse and so precisely.

Nearby, Ema was helping the Oracle up onto her feet. Neither of them looked terribly disoriented from the ordeal.

"We can't stay out in the open," Ema warned them, then pointed towards the woods. "We should hide in there until the fighting does down."

"Yes, let's," the Oracle didn't waste a moment to start running down the path into the forest, with Ema following suit. Yusaku looked at his companions and received unhelpful shrugs. There was no going back to Clearmelt at this time.

And so, they chased after the Oracle and her keeper. It didn't matter which way they were running. They needed to get out before Soltis pulled themselves together and pursued them. Even so, Yusaku turned around and looked back at Laxan Loft and, in his shock, froze and nearly stumbled on his own feet.

And there he saw him standing on the broken parapet — the Crystal Exarch.

Yusaku couldn't get a clear picture of the man, nor could he truly claim the man was the Exarch, but he pieced together the robes and the mass teleportation spell right away.

The Crystal Exarch had a gun poised against the Blood Shepherd, who had rushed out onto the side of the fortress in an effort to pursue them. But the hunter didn't budge from where he stood, and Yusaku could see the telltale rings of a binding spell. Was that another trick of the Exarch's as well?

"Yusaku, what are you-" Kusanagi didn't even stop to finish and began dragging him along by the elbow. "Come on, we gotta run!"

Yusaku spared the Crystal Exarch a final long look before sprinting on ahead of the party to lead. This would likely be the only time he'd see the Exarch. They were due for a long journey ahead of them, on the run, doing whatever it was that Ai was suggesting. For now, Yusaku could savor those few seconds and the knowledge that the Exarch remembered him.

* * *

♬ | Bedlam's Brink by Masyoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMwZcZnPpzc) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

"And so Soltis sent out their finest hounds only to lose their prey… What a disaster this has become."

A shrouded figure sat on the edge of the highest window from Laxan Loft, legs hanging out by the side. He didn't mind that he could be discovered by a wandering Hanoi soldier that walked up the stairs two stories below. If they looked and pointed, he'd snap their necks with a wave of a finger and blame it on the violence that transpired here. It was just that easy for Lightning. [3]

No, he was not here to act, but to observe. He had been thoroughly suspicious of the latest developments of late. Somehow, someone of this realm had successfully slain one of the highest ranked sin eaters of the realm and returned the stars. This did not bode well for his plans to hasten the end of this era, his very machinations.

Lightning had come in search of who had been responsible, but found a scrawny cat and his little entourage of equally uninspiring companions. He made note of Ai, who had clearly facilitated that boy's ability to contain corrupted aether like a sponge. But Ai was too kindhearted of a person, and was always the weakest of them all.

What caught Lightning's attention was the moment the unlikely party faced sure execution from some generals of Soltis, only to rescued by someone he did not quite expect.

Apparently, the scuffle had brought out the elusive Crystal Exarch from his tower to confront Soltis. Without his spells to hold the opposition back, the Blood Shepherd would have been at the Warrior of Darkness and his company's throats before they could make a mad dash into the woods.

Akira, the commanding officer, Lightning recalled, was consumed in a fit of rage at the intervention.

"You… You!" Akira hissed from his spot on the ground. "You would see your city razed?!"

"I'd rather see the Crystarium razed than conquered by the likes of you," The Exarch returned. "We have prepared to receive you ever since the day your mayor made the choice to abandon our shared cause."

"Then what did you come all the way out here to do, Exarch?" Akira demanded. "Face us by yourself?"

Blood Shepherd gave his gunblade a testy wave, but the Exarch didn't appear in any mood to fight. Instead, the man bent down and set his gun on the stony path in surrender. Assuming the spell on himself weakened, the Blood Shepherd began fighting the bindings on his feet, to no avail. Lightning could hear the hunter let out a string of curses, to the delight of the Crystal Exarch.

"Unfortunately, I've run out of tricks, Sir Zaizen," The Exarch got up and raised his hands to show no harm, but his smile was most sinister.

"Surrendering, are you?" Akira seethed. "You mean to fool me?!"

"You can send as many of your hounds as you like, but you won't get far where your quarry has headed," The Exarch chuckled unpleasantly. "Not even the might of Soltis could reach the faerie kingdom of Il Mheg."

"Il Mhe- You?!" Akira cut himself off, and his fury intensified. "Just what are you intending, Exarch!?"

"Nothing malicious, I assure you," the Exarch replied. "The Warrior of Darkness and his company are not affiliated with the Crystarium, not even the defectors who escaped with them."

So that was how he was going to play this, as he? By denouncing the agent of Hanoi that went with the Warrior of Darkness and the Oracle going rogue, they no longer had to shoulder as much blame for the miracle that occurred in Lakeland. Not that it would abate the angry adjutant, but this would delay Soltis from simply entering a war with the Crystarium.

He watched the robed man intently and couldn't sense anything from them that would connect them to the Crystal Tower. This was not the true Crystal Exarch, but likely one of his trusted followers standing in for him while he stayed sequestered away. A little bit of glamor could go a long way to masking someone's appearance. Lightning himself would know, having experienced enough lifetimes to adopt many identities. The Crystal Exarch wouldn't have stepped outside of his tower for something so insignificant. [4]

Lightning clicked his tongue, irritated. This would not have happened if anyone in Soltis, the indolent mountain of flesh they called their mayor especially, had the right mind to be patient and awaited his return from his personal work. With Lightning's counsel, Soltis would be able to address this anomaly that was the Warrior of Darkness and the Crystal Exarchs.

But no, he was dealing with man, whose intelligence could not even rival a single Ignis, not even Ai, of all the ones he had to remember.

When Soltis caught wind of the Hanoi Guard keeping their dear Oracle captive ten years ago, they made sure that the man responsible paid the price and never let his plans come to fruition. No trace of the first Crystal Exarch's experiments were to be found or certainly unfinished. Just what kind of dumb luck did this second Crystal Exarch possess to complete what his predecessor had done? [5]

Lightning considered ending the man right then and there and reveal the farce that was playing out, but he thought against it. Perhaps instilling chaos was not the best course of action, and there were other cards he could play here. Lightning was the Builder, not the Destroyer, after all.

His mind drifted back to Ai and his host. There was a possibility that they could avoid further bloodshed, if he persuaded them and the Crystal Exarch to his side.

* * *

1 Blood Shepherd's class is Gunbreaker, like Ryoken. The character he is standing in for was an incredibly tanky monk, so GNB would be a nice tanky nod to his loner cowboy-like persona.

2 The character Ai is standing in for was not meant to be seen by anyone but the main character of the story, so adapting him is a challenge to know when he can or cannot show up and why. So, the best explanation for Ai conveniently disappearing and appearing is a mix of Ai's emotional state and Yusaku's ability to sustain a connection with him.

3 So, I'm going to temper expectations that Lightning and Ai are the only ones who live and have involvement within the main story. Aqua's in the grey area because she's… somehow fused with Miyu. Earth, Windy, and Flame will appear posthumously.

4 Spoilers, I guess, because that wasn't Ryoken, just Pandor posing as Ryoken to throw everyone off in case anyone had the idea that maybe, just maybe the Crystal Exarch and Revolver were the same person. Unfortunately for all the overthinking Lightning does, Ryoken is, indeed, a little bit of an idiot enough to go on a field trip without a permission slip.

5 I got a question in a previous chapter about whether or not people know Ryoken is the Crystal Exarch. No, most people (except the Hanoi generals) don't know the Exarch's identity and assume he's someone in the Hanoi Guard who took over. Yusaku assumes the Exarch is one of the kids who didn't make it out from the experiments. Unlike the story this is based off of, I never meant for the Crystal Exarch's identity to be much of a mystery to begin with for the readers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said I wasn't going to write a lot of fight scenes but here I am.


	8. precious saplings

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party are stranded in the land of the fae and don't have much choice but to go find Spectre. Overwhelmed by the overeager residents of Il Mheg, Yusaku is forced to call out the fae that had grown attached to him years ago.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It was at this point I wasn't even sure if this was a proper enemies to friends to lovers fic but I couldn't find rivals to lovers. Instead, I just made Yusaku a little more willing to murder the hypotenuse. Can't have a love rival if he's dead.

♬ | Fracture - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nJj2Q3h4u-4) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/426Yxo91rHBH9eNcOJQPB1?si=hkBaSPLpTWe-gWAD7l5m4Q)

After what felt like hours of running for dear life through an unbeaten path in a forest, the party found themselves in a small clearing. Where they were headed, a thick fog had formed all around them, erasing the path from which they came. Trying to navigate backwards would be a fool's errand.

Once the panic had subsided, Yusaku looked to the others. Kusanagi had his hands on his knees still trying to catch his breath. Takeru was already recovered, eyes darting about like Yusaku. Aqua and Ema were quick to fuss over each other's wounds like mother hens. And Ai, who didn't even have to run at all and only now decided to make himself known, was humming some foreign tune without a care in the world.

"Did... did we lose them?" Kusanagi finally found the words to speak.

"I think so," said Yusaku. "They won't find us through all this."

"Right..." Kusanagi dragged his feet across the clearing to go lean on a tree. "Let me just... Rest a bit- Ah!"

Everyone in the clearing jumped in alarm at his cry.

"Hells, is that a leafman?!" he shrieked. "What are leafmen doing here?!"

Yusaku looked to see what had scared him, and his face couldn't have gotten any paler.

A series of short, hedge-like figures with rounded heads stuck out of the ground. Rusted swords and pickaxes lay abandoned at their side, overwrought by the surrounding greenery. Yusaku had heard the tales of the leafmen before: unsuspecting travelers who didn't heed the laws of the forest would fall victim to the curse of the fae… The fae?

"Wait a second," Takeru spoke up. "I thought we were supposed to be at the greatwood. We went in the wrong direction, didn't we?"

Someone familiar had the gall to laugh.

"Did you really believe that we'd let you could flee into Rak'tika?"

Yusaku had been so fixated about seeing the Crystal Exarch for the first time that he had forgotten that Revolver had more or less corralled them up the nearest path into the woods, meaning they were definitely off course all because of Revolver.

"Darn, and here I thought we'd get a head start," Takeru muttered under his breath.

Livid as ever, Yusaku didn't waste time with a retort. He launched himself at Revolver, sword drawn and eyes blazing. Revolver reacted quickly, and the steel of both greatsword and gunblade sang. They had gotten close enough that Yusaku could catch a glimpse of his own murderous reflection in the other's visor.

Revolver shrugged off most of the blow, throwing Yusaku to the ground and knocking both their weapons out of their hands. What he didn't anticipate was Yusaku recovering quickly and swinging his legs hard into the other man's calves. In just one fluid motion, he swept Revolver off the ground and pounded him into the dirt.

Yusaku climbed on top of him and tried to grab at his arms to pin him down properly, but Revolver was taller, a whole lot stronger, and just as equally stubborn.

"Hey, Yusaku-"

Not even thinking about who was speaking, Yusaku looked up for just a moment, but Revolver took advantage of the spare second and shoved him off. Yusaku coughed on the cloud of dust that was kicked up in their tussle. He had a feeling that Revolver was going to try and restrain him and rolled away onto his feet, narrowly missing the other's bayonet coming down for his shoulder.

Yusaku ignored the dizzying feeling building in his head and charged back in. He drove a knee into Revolver's stomach and felt a faint satisfaction at the taller man doubling over in surprise. The moment didn't last long when Revolver hooked one arm around Yusaku's leg and tackled him to the floor. The others in the forest with them yelped and wisely backed away.

He was glad they were sitting on a patch of grass and not cobblestone because a mouthful of pebbles was not good for either of their faces. But godsdamnit, Revolver trying to smother his face in the a bed of clovers. Yusaku grit his teeth and broke free from the grip on his head, using Revolver's surprise to his advantage to throw him off. And the struggle resumed in earnest.

One small wrestling match later, and Yusaku was the one on top again. He wedged his knee into between Revolver's shoulders and managed to pin the man's arms behind his back. Yusaku pulled a knife out of a holster in his leg and held it to his throat.

"Why did you lead us here?" he demanded.

"What I do is all according the Crystal Exarch's plan," Revolver answered, unflinching as the knife's edge was beginning to cut through the scales at his neck. "As is the way of the Hanoi Guard."

"Get to the point," Yusaku applied a little more weight onto Revolver's back for encouragement.

"The Crystal Exarch issued clear instructions for me to take you to safety should the situation had gotten worse," Revolver hissed from the pressure. "I had intended to lead you to someplace more confidential so I could explain myself, but… you're making that part of the plan difficult."

"We didn't need any saving," Yusaku scowled. "And we certainly don't want any help where we're going."

Revolver's lips curled into a taunting smile. "And no thanks to your dear Exarch for teleporting you outside of Laxan Loft, saving you from near death?"

"I’m pretty sure I could have pulled something off," Ai huffed. "I may be dead, but Yusaku and I could have done something before you stepped in."

Yusaku doubted that, but Ai was allowed to bluff. Even if the Crystal Exarch wanted to help him, the fact still remained that all of his plans likely didn't include Ai in the picture. Yusaku couldn't simply follow someone who would want to destroy something potentially important to his recovery.

"I doubt your words for three reasons," Revolver shot back, earning a scowl from Yusaku. He hated how the man shared the verbal tics he did. "First, I simply do not trust the Ignis. Second, I clearly saw you struggling against Soltis's hounds. Lastly, whatever happened to the skills you displayed against the first Lightwarden? Did you deliberately hold yourself back with the intention of them failing?"

"Why would I- Gods, this is just irritating," Ai folded his arms across his chest defensively. "Why must you assume I'm aiming to destroy the world? I said I wasn't on that side of the Ignis!"

"We tire of your games," Yusaku pushed the edge of his knife into Revolver's neck and felt the man's body still underneath him. "Tell us how to leave this place."

If the Crystal Exarch inquired about whatever happened to Revolver, Yusaku could say it was an accident. Probably.

"And what next? Dispose of me?" Revolver asked. "How unwise of you, to walk back into the arms of Soltis. You saw how they treated you."

Yusaku had to concede that Revolver was correct in a way. They were pressured on two fronts, and now that Soltis might have learned the identity of their target, going back to Lakeland would be the least ideal course of action now.

"Furthermore, Kusanagi, your brother is still in Lakeland with the Homuras, isn't he?" Revolver smiled like he knew he had them dancing to his tune. "I would think twice before you try to get rid of me here and now."

"You wouldn't dare!" The subtle threat got a rise out of Kusanagi, but Takeru held him back with a firm hand on his shoulder, but who knew how long that was going to stop him?

"Please!" Someone's voice rang across the clearing. All heads turned to Aqua, who shrank back in fright at the sudden intensity directed at her. "I ask that you not fight!"

The blade still didn't leave Revolver's neck, but Yusaku stopped to listen to what the girl had to say. First, Ai had insisted they go through all the trouble to rescue her, so it would do to be on her good side if they were to travel together. Second, it was likely that she didn't want to be under the Hanoi's influence, otherwise the Crystarium would have been the first place she wanted to go. Third, Yusaku had to admit that he was not being level headed here. Another sane mind was greatly appreciated.

"The Oracle is right," Ema stepped in front of her protectively. "It's no use picking petty fights while we're on the run."

The rogue turned to Revolver, who was still pressed to the ground.

"This situation is far from ideal," Ema admitted. "But I could use some directions from someone experienced with Il Mheg. Since this man's offering, he's much better alive as our guide."

Kusanagi frowned. "You're a hunter from Soltis, and you'd work with one of the Hanoi?"

"And what about it?" Ema pointed out. "My priority is the protecting the Oracle. I'm sure all of us can agree that her safety takes priority over… whatever squabble you've gotten yourselves into."

"But I myself have befriended the fae in my living days," Ai sniped. "So I have a good idea on how things work around here. You don't need a guide when you've got me."

"I doubt your obsolete memory would be helpful in the present day," There Revolver went again with that awful, sly grin. "You need me."

"We can navigate this just fine," Takeru argued.

"And the leafmen here thought the same as-"

"Enough!" Aqua shouted again, and she looked ready to use her cudgel for anything but healing. "I've decided! This... Revolver... will be our guide, and that's final."

Ai and Takeru both let out an exasperated sigh but sounded ready to give in. Yusaku got off of Revolver and kept his distance from then on, but didn't bother to help him up. This was not what he predicted at all, but Ai wasn't fighting back against this decision as strongly. Anything to help find his fellow Ignis, he assumed.

Aqua watched them with faint disapproval.

"So where did you intend to take us?" She asked Revolver, who was massaging his wrists.

"We are to meet with Spectre, an ally of the Hanoi Guard," he answered. "It has been a while since we've called on him, but his expertise makes him an invaluable member to our efforts against the sin eaters."

"His expertise, you say?"

"If it interests you, he is one of the children from that incident, much like yourselves," Revolver added, setting both Yusaku and Takeru on alert. [1]

"And why would he work for the likes of Hanoi?" Takeru bit back.

"Unlike you, Spectre understood the mission of the Hanoi and lent his full support," Revolver said coolly. "And rest assured, he is happy under our care."

He and Takeru would be the judge of that, Yusaku thought as he weighed the explanation in his head. If Spectre was so useful, then why didn't the Hanoi summon this Spectre instead of dragging him and Takeru along? Did the incident not give Spectre the same abilities as Yusaku?

"So where does this Spectre live?" Ema stepped aside for Revolver to take the lead. "Will you lead the way then?"

Yusaku fully expected the man to accept Ema's courteousness and go ahead, but he didn't move from his spot. In fact, his face tightened as if he had sensed something was wrong.

"There is one problem, however," Revolver looked most loath to admit whatever mistake had had made. "I've... I seem to have forgotten where Spectre's house was."

"Forget?! How could you forget?" Takeru threw his hands up in disbelief. "You rounded us up like cattle and put us here, and you forgot where to go?!"

"Is it because of this fog?" Aqua asked helpfully, reaching out in the air to catch a whiff of it. She was probably right. They couldn't see anything beyond the first two or three trees here.

"Must be a trick of the fae folk," Kusanagi grimaced at the leafmen. "They do like trapping travelers and forcing them to play games with them."

"Yes..." Ai let out an exasperated sigh. "The pixies especially."

"Now that's just great," Takeru kicked a nearby brush in frustration and somehow triggered a chorus of laughter all around the clearing. Everyone was on high alert and looked about wildly for the source of the voices.

"Awwww, poor things!"

"Who's there?" Takeru barked at to the open air. "Show yourselves!"

"Why the scary faces, hmmm?" another voice teased. "We only want to have some fun with you!"

"I wouldn't answer their questions so much if I were you," Ai suggested in a surprisingly low voice. "Get too close to them without any preparations and you'll find yourself as lost as those leafmen."

For once, Revolver hummed in agreement with Ai. Yusaku looked backed down at the small grassy figures and stepped away from them, in case they came alive and jumped out at him. He heard Revolver stifle a laugh at his apprehension and shot a baleful glance at his direction. The amused chatter from the pixies were not helping.

"What spoilsports… only concerned with themelves."

The chorus whispered in agreement and departed with another round of giggles, leaving behind quiet in the woods again. Although he was sure they were gone, Yusaku kept an eye in the direction the voices had disappeared to.

"This is the domain of the fae, isn't it?" Aqua asked tentatively. "Would they be able to do something about this fog?"

"But he just said not to talk to them," Takeru pointed out.

"With proper preparations this time," Aqua corrected him, then looked to Revolver for approval. "Correct?"

"Yes," Revolver nodded. "They alone can lift the fog. If we are to traverse through their lands, we are to play by their rules."

"Then if they want to play with us so badly, they should at least show some hospitality," Kusanagi then chimed in. "Will following their voices take us to their settlement?"

"We should have their permission," said Revolver.

"Then let's just get going," Yusaku sighed irritably. "We've been standing here long enough."

The rest of the party agreed and began their trek out along a path next to the clearing.

* * *

♬ | Fierce and Free - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h41T80eDVI) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

Soon they were out of the woods and in a vast meadow, still covered in the same thick fog. There was not a soul in sight aside from themselves, yet all this time, Aqua could feel eyes trained on her and the rest of the party. Aqua fought the disorienting drowsiness building in her head as she followed closely next to Ema.

She watched the backs of the men walking ahead of them, the Warrior of Darkness in particular. He looked no different than how he appeared in her premonition, but now, Aqua could sense the toll left on his aether ten years ago. Not much of a talker, but undeniably strong with the help of the Ignis' ghost beside him.

They've barely exchanged a few words in the past hours, and he seemed far more interested in the Hanoi soldier leading them than the rest of the party. And he hadn't even shared his name personally with her like the others did. Aqua hadn't expected her meeting with the Warrior of Darkness to go so dismally.

So it appeared that Aqua's expectations of this journey were far too removed from reality. All those years of reading and playacting the epic tales of old in the comfort of her room with Aoi was poor preparation for her present quest. Aqua took a deep sigh and put her best foot forward. She had a duty to uphold, and it shouldn't matter whatever lay ahead and whoever was traveling with her.

Ema noticed her rubbing at the chafe marks on her wrists and nudged her softly. [2]

"Do they still hurt?" She asked, and Aqua shook her head. "I'll ask them to slow down if you need rest."

"I wasn't injured badly," Aqua reassured her. "The sooner we find this 'Spectre,' the better."

"If you say so," Ema looked doubtful but didn't comment further on it. "Do you mind me asking what happened back then that made you run away from our hiding place, then?"

Aqua nodded solemnly. "I was afraid… that you wouldn't let me go because of what was going on back in Lakeland…"

"Lady Aqua," Ema laid a comforting hand on the girl's shoulders. "Had I not come sooner, you could have found yourself back in Soltis again. You could have waited."

Aqua was certain that Ema would allow her to meet the Warrior of Darkness without any fuss. Ema had always been kind to Aqua and Aoi when she still worked for the army of Soltis, and she was a committed believer of the Night's Blessed who exalted the Oracle. There was no reason for Ema to deny her nearly anything she could think of.

Guilt pooled at the pit of Aqua's stomach, second to shame. Her own doubts and lack of faith in Ema's loyalty had nearly gotten them in trouble, if not for the intervention of the Warrior of Darkness and his company. Yet Aqua feared perhaps the woman could turn against her or sought to dictate her every move like Queen and Sir Akira did. No amount of spirituality and inspiration could conquer self-interest and coin, in Aqua's own experience. She needed to maintain distance and keep this relationship transactional.

"I felt his presence that night," Aqua said quietly, eyes trained on the Warrior of Darkness. She had yet to know his name. "I knew somewhere, somehow, I had to go to them…"

Ema followed her eyes and understood what she meant. "I see… the Oracle's intuition at work?"

"Yes..." Aqua nodded.

"He seems the unfriendly, brooding kind of boy," Ema noted, not at all caring if the men heard her. "But so long as he gets the job done..."

"Yusaku is plenty competent!" Someone said beside them. "I'll have you know he has my seal of approval, Aqua."

Their heads snapped to the voice who so abruptly joined their conversation. He was the Mystel man who appeared in Aqua's vision weeks ago, now appearing before her as a lingering spirit. Ai, he called himself. Although deceased, he appeared trustworthy, or Aqua felt compelled to trust him. At least he was willing to speak with her, unlike the other Mystel in this party.

"Sorry to startle you, ladies," Ai made a bow as well as be could walk, float, whatever he was doing to move. "I couldn't help but overhear your words."

"Got kicked out of the boys' club up ahead?" Ema teased him. "You poor thing."

"I didn't get-" The man reconsidered himself. "I guess… you could say I got kicked out. They're giving me the cold shoulder."

"You can walk with us, if you like," Aqua offered him. "I would like for us to get along better, good sir."

"Good sir?" Ai asked, incredulous. "I'm Ai, one of your dearest friends! You needn't call me 'good sir'!"

"Dearest... Friends?" Aqua said slowly and stiffly. "We were friends?"

"Er... Yes! We were really close back then!" The ghost puffed his chest out with pride. "Your original incarnation and I were the voice of reason in our party!"

Aqua may trust him out of gut feelings, but she wasn't so sure if his bravado was worth believing. On top of that, it seemed he had expectations of her, too, ones that she couldn't possibly meet.

"Lady Aqua may carry the reincarnated soul of the Oracle," Ema helpfully supplied for her. "But that doesn't mean she carries the memories of her predecessors."

"Huh, no one told me about that detail," Ai frowned.

"It's true," Aqua said and watched him flounder for something else to say. This wasn't new. Many who met the Oracle of Light carried glorified images of her and gave her too much credit for things she herself hadn't done.

Still, Ai looked desperate to find anything in common with her. "Then... do you remember this place then, Aqua?"

"Not really."

"But it's where you and Earth loved to visit!"

"Who?"

"You know…" He fumbled for the right words. "Earth… your knight? The big strong one in our little party?"

The name didn't ring a bell, to the man's dismay. His tail and ears drooped miserably, and Aqua felt a wave of pity.

"I, uh… suppose you don't remember him, either, do you?"

Was Earth supposed to be someone she needed to remember? If the original incarnation of Aqua didn't bother to pass that knowledge down to her successors, perhaps she didn't have any strength left to do so, or maybe Earth just wasn't as important.

"I'm sorry," Aqua looked away. "I couldn't help you when I should."

"Don't be," Ai was quick to reassure her. "I… I got my hopes a bit too high, that's all."

As good natured the ghost was, Aqua could see the strain in his smile, but she'd rather not call him out on his lie.

"Anyways... Look!" Changing the subject, Ai pointed at the ground. Aqua noted a particular plant peeking out from the typical brush: a short single stalk that started straight until it curled into a spiral. She stepped off the road and knelt down to pick it, while Ema followed her.

"What is it?" The rogue examined the plant curiously.

"It's a looking grass," Aqua said without thinking and earned a questioning look from Ema. "I don't remember where I learned it, but it's important, right?"

"Very much so," Ai grinned knowingly. "Useful for spotting hidden pixies."

"Is that so?" Ema smiled pleasantly, likely making a mental note and eager to ask for more. Aqua did like that about Ema and aspire to be just as good at drawing out information out of people. "You said earlier you traveled here often?"

"Oh, yes, very often!" As expected, he was easily charmed. "I could have been your only guide, if you let me."

"There's nothing wrong with having two experts in the area," Ema countered. "Do you dislike that Revolver individual so much?"

"Well, he wants me exorcised and dead," Ai pouted. "Forgive me for being a little offended I must travel with him, even if Yusaku will defend me."

Aqua looked at the broad shoulders of the masked agent of the Crystarium. It was contradictory that the Hanoi wanted to ensure the death of all Ignis and the sin eaters they created yet they would assist the Oracle fighting the sin eaters based on a promise made a hundred years ago. Aqua had no memories to fall back on to help Ai, but she could still exercise some power through her name.

"Then I will vouch for your innocence," she assured Ai. "I believe you are a friend, and so you should be treated as such, no matter what Revolver says."

"That's much appreciated, Aqua," Ai's lips curled into a small smile, surprisingly subdued for someone who was so energetic moments earlier. "You've always been a kind person."

Always? Aqua would run out of the free fingers if she had to count the times she didn't do things out of kindness. The lack of kindness was the only way she could live in Soltis and ignore the pleas of the beggars living out in Gatetown. The lack of kindness was pretending that there wasn't anything wrong with being tended to by literal slaves made out of those same beggars. The lack of kindness was choosing to leave her dearest friend behind to fulfill her destiny.

The thick of the fog ebbed away a little to reveal a crudely put together gate made of sticks and vines. Ahead of them, the men were alarmed at the sudden change in scenery and began drawing their weapons out of caution. At the same time, Ai vanished with a soft pop, and Aqua blinked at where he once stood. It must be nice to control one's own presence at will, she thought enviously.

"We must be close," Ema spoke to Aqua in a low voice, and Aqua nodded back. She didn't forget the leafmen they came across in the forest earlier.

The dirt road were scattered with one or two cobblestone, likely remnants of a town that might have once stood here, back when the Kingdom of Voeburt still existed, before the Flood of Light happened. Eventually, they found themselves at a crossroads entirely laid in stone, and Aqua could make out shapes of suspiciously tall mounds. She assumed those must be houses that the fae folk lived in.

The party went silent when they came across a cluster of much taller than usual leafmen. That must have been so many people in one spot. Aqua swallowed her nerves, vainly hoping that their own party won't meet the same fate.

"Er," Kusanagi asked, rightfully uneasy about the leafmen. "Where is this place?"

"This is Lydha Lyran," Revolver answered. "It's the biggest faerie village I know of."

"But there's no one here," Takeru pointed out. "And this fog is worse than before."

"Another of their games," Revolver said. "We can draw then out of their hiding place if we have a stalk of looking grass."

The rest of the party exchanged puzzled expressions over the subject. Aqua reckoned they had never seen a stalk of looking grass before, or perhaps they weren't so well-traveled outside of their home regions like everyone else here was.

"I've found one," Aqua brought the plant she picked out for everyone to see. Yusaku and his companions looked at the small thing with curious eyes.

Revolver plucked the looking grass off her hands to inspect and, gave an approving nod. "Excellent."

Aqua sighed in deep relief. This was the first time in this journey she did something right and not endanger anyone.

Revolver raised the looking grass to his eye, likely in search for anything unusual. Aqua couldn't say what exactly he must have seen, but the way he looked high and low must have meant that there must be not one, but a whole family of pixies.

"[I've found you. The game is over.]" Revolver spoke loud and clearly in the speech of the fae. The only reason Aqua managed to understand it at all was because she had studied it back in Soltis.

On cue, several puffs of colored clouds sprang out of their hiding places, revealing an assortment of faeries, some blue, others pink, even a red one. The glint of their wings left Aqua dazed, marveled. She had never seen a pixie before, and no illustration in a book could prepare her for the real deal.

"Nooo, we are found!" The pixie in Revolver's face whined in a pitched lilt. "Why must you ruin our trick, mortal?"

Revolved remained stone-faced, annoying the pixie even further.

"Wait, I know this soul!" Another pixie cut in. "He's been here before!"

"And he's brought friends! How adorable!"

The rest of the pixies began gossiping amongst themselves animatedly, spinning and flitting about in the air as they did. Aqua could hardly keep track of their movements, and neither could anyone else in the party. It all stopped when Revolver coughed rudely.

"We did not come here to play." He told the pixies. "We have come to see Spectre."

"Spectre, you say?" One pixie mulled over the name for a while. "Oh! The peculiar one!"

"Oh, him?" Said another. "In return for our help building his study here in Il Mheg, he agreed to a riddle contest with us! For seven days and nights!"

"And he wasn't allowed to sleep, too! Ahahahahaha!"

Yusaku and the others stiffened at the mention of no sleep, and Aqua couldn't blame them. She didn't know Spectre all that well, but she suddenly felt sorry for the man for being forced to relive horrible memories from ten years ago.

"Seven days?" Kusanagi frowned. "There's no chance a person could survive that long without sleep."

"Fortunately for us," Revolver remarked proudly. "Spectre is not most people."

"You mean he enjoys it or he's just used to it?" Takeru asked for clarification.

"I'll leave that for you to figure out for yourself."

"Do you think he'll agree to do that again?" A pixie asked. "Oh, never mind that! We must do it again!"

"And I'm sure Spectre will be delighted," Revolver continued. "Now, if you'd be so kind as to lift this spell you put on this place…"

The closer pixies began to congregate in a huddle before them, although none of them had any intention of being discreet about their discussion. Aqua could hear smatterings of "Should we?" and "But it's fun" from them, and she bit back a deep sigh. For beings of little connection to man, the pixies didn't quite care that they were responsible for some travelers' getting lost in a memory-muddling mist.

Takeru, on the other hand, was losing his temper by the second compared to his more patient companions.

"What now?" He aired his frustrations aloud. "Are we really going to just stand there and let them decide our fate?"

"Remember what I said earlier?" Revolver got a reluctant nod. "That's right. We must indulge them, for this is their home."

The reminder only made everyone else look understandably more tired than they were moments ago. Even Ema couldn't hide a sigh. Aqua looked back to the pixies, worried what they would do next.

Not long after, the pixies broke apart, and one of them placed their hands on their hips with big grin.

"We've made up our minds!" They declared. "We will life our spell on one condition: that you must first do us a few favors!"

"Define… 'few'…" Yusaku asked warily. He must have dealt with pixies before to ask for specifics.

"We'll think about that later!" Another waved away his question. "But once you've helped us with all of our troubles, we'll let you see Spectre!"

"And we can hold you to that?"

"Of course! Pixie's honor!"

At that, Takeru heaved an exasperated sigh, while Revolver shrugged unhelpfully.

"So that's it, isn't it?" Ema smiled thinly. "Pixie chores?"

"We should split up," Kusanagi suggested. "They should be mostly harmless tasks. Mostly."

* * *

♬ | A Reason to Live - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsRuJeW88R4) | <strike>Spotify</strike>

Takeru was feeling a full blown migraine coming on and he blamed these piexies. He could have sworn they had spent at least half a day doing favors for these brats. They did mostly trivial tasks, ranging from planting everblossom seeds and grooming their flock of sheep. That didn't mean these quests were harmless, however. On one account Takeru was sent out to fetch water only to be accosted by a pollen-crazed bear near the spring he was directed to.

Now, he was out picking fruits from a grove of belltrees malms away from the village, where more bears roamed about. Thankfully, Yusaku offered to come along and make this entire ordeal safer and less lonely. Takeru suspected that because Ai ducked out of this for convenience (the bastard), Yusaku was just as uncomfortable with being alone in a new place.

He was beginning to suspect that they were only making them do all these "quests" in jest. Takeru imagined that the others was losing their minds collecting twigs out of those animated basket creatures roaming about the nearby meadows. He pitied Kusanagi and their new companions, except for Revolver. In fact, he was delighted knowing that Revolver was likely suffering just as much as he and Yusaku were.

"Are you feeling all right?" Yusaku broke him out of his thoughts. "We can sit down and rest if aether sickness is coming back again."

"I'm good," Takeru lied, just a little. "You?"

"I can manage," his friend answered. "I'm holding out until we return to Lydha Lran."

"That's if we can finish this on time!" Takeru shouted in exasperation. "Gods, how many did these pixies want? I lost count."

"Forty-five," Yusaku deadpanned, reaching up to fetch another bunch of berries for their shared basket. "But I don't think pixies are that picky."

This entire time, Yusaku had been harvesting these fruits without complaint, and it made Takeru wonder how Yusaku could maintain so much composure. They went through the same exact horrible experiment, but their lives shortly after that incident diverged wildly. Takeru still had his parents and Kiku, and Yusaku didn't meet him or Kusanagi until much later and had to grow up a bit faster.

"Don't you hate this?" He asked. "Hate them?"

"I don't dislike the pixies that much," Yusaku said. "They have good reason to behave so impishly."

"Good reason?"

"I read about them in the Cabinet of Curiosity back at the Crystarium," Yusaku explained, the big bookworm he was. No wonder he was so adept at dealing with Ai, an actual imp. "It's believed that faeries are born from the souls who died as children, so that's why they behave like children."

How quaint, Takeru thought, that lost children were transformed into pixies to have fun for the rest of their lives. He wondered if he would have become the same way if he had not survived the incident. Staying a perpetual child didn't sound so bad compared to the ten years he spent grieving for his parents and for himself.

"That doesn't mean we should always tolerate everything they set us up to," Yusaku added. "They may live to play, but we'll have to put our foot down somehow."

"Yeah, exactly what I was saying," Takeru tossed more berries into the basket haplessly.

They continued their work in quiet, keeping an eye out for any bears that came too close. The fog had not yet been lifted yet and did no favors for the uncertainty growing in Takeru's chest. He didn't like this place at all, no matter how beautiful the everything was compared to Lakeland. He had simply agreed to helping Yusaku and Ai with a favor in Laxan Loft only to be stuck in an unfamiliar land where everything might be dead set on killing them.

"You never said why exactly we're agreeing to help Ai and Revolver," He broke the silence. "I trust you, I really do, but what did Ai say to make you so ready to go out here?"

  
Yusaku paused and let his hands fall to his sides. This was a surprise. Takeru always took Yusaku for a decisive person.

"Ai offered me something I couldn't turn down," said Yusaku. "He said can undo the damage done to us ten years ago."

"So he just said that and you believed him?" Takeru frowned with worry. When Yusaku wasn't out hunting or dealing with Revolver making their lives harder, he was intent, maybe obsessed, with finding a cure for their conditions, preferably without any help from the Hanoi. He should have known that something related to aetherology would persuade Yusaku.

"And what of the obvious signs that we are growing weaker every day?" Yusaku asked him back, eyes sharp. "You cannot deny that from all those spells of pain that we aren't that far off from becoming sin eaters."

Takeru knew too well the omens of frequent aether sickness, the night terrors, the stabbing pain of disturbed aether. He and Yusaku got off easy, compared to Jin who might as well be afflicted, unfeeling and unaware of the world around him. The thought of turning out the same way as their bereft friend terrified him, too. But as similar Takeru's pain was to Yusaku's, they weren't the same. After all, Yusaku didn't have anyone to really lose when he was snatched up by the first Crystal Exarch. Simply finding a way to ensure they won't turn out like Jin wasn't going to fix his grief.

"I suppose… I don't want to go on that journey," Takeru conceded. "And I want for Jin and Kusanagi to be happy, too. I just don't feel, well, all right with what's been happening. As hard as we tried to avoid help from the Hanoi, here they are making us do their bidding."

"It's an unfortunate turn of events," Yusaku agreed. "But… I'm not exactly sure if we have as many choices anymore as we once did when we met."

Takeru didn't like the sound of what Yusaku said, but he chose not to contest his friend about it. The rest of their time harvesting the berries continued in further silence, and their walk back to the village was just as silent. Ai had not bothered to appear before them, but what did Takeru care?

The rest of their party had returned to Lydha Lran before them, and their faces looked most grim. Takeru could have guessed they lost someone if he didn't know better.

"What happened?" He asked as he set down the basket on the front porch of a pixie's house.

"They gave us more things to do," Aqua sighed, shoulder's slumping like her own spirit. "We've decided we've had enough."

"We were waiting for the two of you to come back before we decided on what next to do for negotiations," said Kusanagi. "Things would be a lot easier if we had anyone who has formed a pact with a pixie."

"A pact?" Takeru asked. "So… like if you made a deal with a pixie?"

"Something like that," Kusanagi nodded. "They're formed through friendly connections with a pixie. Similar to how I'm bound to the faeries I summon, but such bonds are a lot stronger and don't require books."

"Oh, a faerie pact!" Ai suddenly popped in, startling those in the group who weren't at all used to his abrupt appearances. "I had one! But I'm dead, so my pact with Roboppy is void now."

"Roboppy?" Takeru made a face. How did anyone come up with such a bizarre name? "That's what you called them?"

"I forgot what their actual name was so I had to invent one!" Ai grinned sheepishly. "They didn't mind! They're only pixie I cared to get along with."

"Well, that was helpful," said Ema. "Anyways, is there anyone here who knows any pixies? Friendly ones, preferably."

"There's Gyuf Uin," Yusaku finally spoke.

Both Takeru and Kusanagi flinched at the name. Gyuf Uin. Oh no.

"Oh, gods, no," he muttered under his breath. "No, please, not them."

"What's wrong?" Aqua asked, the good, innocent soul she was. "Do you know this pixie?"

"I formed a pact with them," Yusaku added out of the blue, and Takeru jumped this time in surprise. Now this, this was news to him. The drop of Kusanagi's jaw meant that he didn't know about this either. Revolver made a most disgruntled noise.

"Not only are you acquainted with a pixie, but you entered a pact?" his voice was close to a hiss.

"Yeah," Takeru wasn't sure if he was angry or surprised at Yusaku. "You might have mentioned it sooner!"

"It didn't cross my mind," Yusaku sighed. "We didn't exactly part on very friendly terms. I formed that pact with them on the condition that they stopped bothering me."

Takeru vividly remembered the pixie made a mess of his quarters that day. All of his things, from his leatherworking tools to his own bed, were vanished out of his room and found strung on trees or lying upturned on the forest floor. He didn't know then what Yusaku had said, only that he told Gyuf Uin to go away. Now it made more sense why he was the only one affected by the tantrum and not Yusaku back then.

"Well, we've got little choice, haven't we?" Kusanagi took another deep sigh. "Call him out, Yusaku."

"Gyuf Uin [3]," Yusaku called out, voice steady.

The first thing they heard was a pitched sputter above their heads, then a pop. Takeru felt like he grew a shade paler at the sight of a familiar face inching close to Yusaku's. He didn't think the pixie would be so angry at Yusaku. Gyuf Uin always took their frustrations out on Takeru, but that was better left unsaid.

"You're late, Yusaku!" The pixie stomped in the air. "Very late! I waited years! Years! For you to summon me, and I've been waiting since my dear sapling came here! Waiting and waiting and waiting!"

The pixie began to rant at an even faster pace, and Takeru didn't have the mental fortitude right now to keep track of what they said.

"Such a heartless thing he is!" Gyuf Uin screeched while flying circles around Yusaku's head. How was he not even dizzy? "Cold and cruel and heartless!"

"Oh, it's little Roboppy!" Ai exclaimed, brightening the mood considerably. "Hey, Roboppy! Remember me?"

Gyuf Uin, or Roboppy, whatever Ai called them, returned a big wide smile. All that anger in such a tiny package drained away quickly as they flitted through and about Ai's head.

"My dear old sapling!" The pixie flew in circles around. "I remember you!"

So they're friends? How wonderful, Takeru bemoaned to himself. He wasn't ready to deal with two self-important idiots in this party.

"You've haven't changed a bit!" Ai teased the pixie. "Or have you grown a new pair of wings?"

"And you're beyond growing!" Was that a compliment or a jab?

"We can catch up later, but I'm in a bit of a pinch," Ai turned up the charm, even adding a wink for greater measure. "So you made a new pact with Yusaku? How about you forgive this poor little sapling?"

Takeru watched Yusaku stand between the two, deeply uncomfortable. Being called "little" likely didn't help, either.

"Of course I can!" Roboppy beamed. "He called for me with such an earnest voice, I couldn't possibly stay angry at him!"

* * *

1 While Elezen/Elves in FFXIV are pretty long lived, I'm ignoring that part of canon so Spectre can fit the age range of the rest of the cast because I don't want to think too hard about logistics. Most of these changes to their appearance are purely cosmetic, anyways.

2 In the middle of planning, I went in thinking "yeah sure, Ema can be Thancred", but then now I had to justify why she'd go against Akira and protect Miyu. So I just added off-canon lore that the fantasy religion she practices says she has to help the Oracle with pretty much anything.

Aqua/Miyu already has enough esteem issues on her own, but it makes me wonder if Blood Shepherd would have made a more perfect parallel to Thancred in Ema's place with Ema being more of a punch clock antagonist to the party. Then Kengo would get all the gosh darn angst about treating Aqua like his own sister.

3 While Roboppy will be Roboppy for ease of reading, I gave them a faerie rune name, Gyuf Uin, meaning "gift of joy" (gyuf = "gift", uin = "joy"), a reference to how Roboppy brought joy to Yusaku.

Roboppy was originally meant to stand in for a different character, Seto, to be introduced later, but making them a pixie was more suitable as someone willing to assist Yusaku and prone to whimsical logic. They probably first met when Roboppy showed up to help Yusaku with nightmares, as pixies do.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I won't be adding as many screenshots immediately on chapter launches, but I'm trying my best to make this fic something that readers can revisit after it's complete. The problem is I'm cheap and don't want to buy Fantasia and I'm too lazy to work on a proper Yusaku alt. I can make the Miyu ones tho and edit her horns out because my character is Au Ra, but Miqote headgear often have added ears. What a struggle.


	9. courting cooperation

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The party arrives at Spectre's house and meet the man of the house as well as an unexpected guest: Aoi Zaizen. Meanwhile, Akira sends a report back to Soltis about the progress of his search.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry guys about the reposting of this chapter. I messed up the middle putting a scene that was supposed to take place way later in the story.

♬ | The Waking Sands - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O10JdXPkeDg) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/2y78tskYobUfE8XWucDQcX?si=UU4Ft_5ERlK_VOu_HgMA6Q)

Afterwards, Yusaku directed Roboppy to tell off the other pixies to leave them alone and lift the fog. Which was all fine and good, except that Roboppy did so with a mouth that could make a sailor blush. Yusaku was aware that Roboppy was the possessive type, but he didn't expect so many death threats and destruction of property. And here, he recalled that pixies were once young children.

The pixies did as requested and got rid of the fog with a twirl of the finger. Some of them tried to bargain with Roboppy and ask for some of the party to stay behind. All that got them was another string of curses, so they gave up on the idea, much to everyone's relief.

On top of restoring everyone's sense of direction, the undone spell revealed a wide, open meadow full of wild blossoms, a lake large enough to rival that of the Source back home, and the remains of a grand castle in the distance. Much like Lakeland before Holminster, the skies were plagued by perpetual light. Yusaku hoped that Spectre wasn't far away so they didn't have to be out for too long under this weather.

"Your lovely branch is useful, yes?" Roboppy made sure to scold Yusaku before he left Lydha Lran. "So whenever trouble is afoot, you must remember to make USE OF ME!"

"I'll... keep that in mind," Yusaku reassured them, although he wasn't sure if he believed those words himself after what he witnessed.

"Love you, too, Roboppy!" Ai waved to them as they walked away, but the pixie was already long gone to commit other mischief. The disregard had Ai moping for the rest of the walk. No one knew how to console him because telling a ghost that there were better things in life wasn't particularly useful.

Compared to the pixies' homes which were built into the slopes of the meadows, Spectre lived in a standalone cottage on top of a small hill. This place must have built a while ago from the looks of the worn stone trail that led up to the front porch. The pixies lounging by the windowsill watched the visitors with interest. They didn't dare try anything with them, likely because they've already heard word that Roboppy made a pact with Yusaku and didn't want to risk hurting another pixie's favorite.

Without so much as a polite knock, Revolver pushed the doors open and made himself at home. The way his boots left a thin trail of dust on the floor was sure to make the owner very unhappy and unwilling to talk to them.

"A bit rude, don't you think?" Ai commented, but he went ignored.

"Spectre!" Revolver called out, his voice bouncing off the walls. "Are you in?"

Yusaku lingered by the door in wait for anyone to call Revolver out on his rudeness. But after a while of hearing no answer, he took a step inside for himself, as did the rest of the party. Better to be indoors than stand another second of scrutiny by the pixies outside. At least for politeness's sake, Yusaku tried to wipe the soles of his shoes on the porch outside before going inside.

The humble exterior of the cottage certainly hid the sheer size of the room inside. In every corner, every shelf, were clusters of books and flasks of curious shapes, sizes, and colors. Star charts and old diagrams for aetherology were plastered indiscriminately on the walls, but not so that they made the cottage appear messy or cluttered. Compared to the furnished but soulless room Revolver used in the Crystarium to lock Yusaku up in, the cottage actually felt more lived in.

"Spectre!" Once Revolver's calls started to sound more like a demand, they heard the creaking of the floorboards from the loft above them.

Looking down at them was an elf in a draping grey tunic, only just hitting the age all elves start shooting up in height. He stepped away from the railing and descended the stairs at a steady pace. At a closer look, Yusaku could tell he must have trained as a soothsayer from the golden bangles and planisphere strapped onto him.

"Ah, Revolver," He said, voice light. "I see you have charmed the pixies into showing you the way here. Normally, you've needed my help."

"It wasn't I who did that," Revolver introduced Yusaku and the others. "We've had a bit of luck on our side."

Spectre pored over Yusaku with critical eyes, then looked at the others. Yusaku felt the urge to take a step back out of the discomfort of the scrutiny.

"Unto a world weary of heroes, a pack of heroes wend their way," He mocked them, smiling as he did. "You must be the Warrior of Darkness and his clueless company, as the Exarch said to me."

"I don't like this guy," Takeru said under his breath only for Yusaku to hear, and Yusaku had to agree. He wasn't looking forward to working with someone who sneered so much, expert or no.

"What took you?" Revolver asked. "So caught up in your solitude you didn't come to receive us?"

"My apologies for that," Spectre bowed his head. "I was preoccupied with unwanted visitors."

"Visitors? What visitors?"

"Perhaps you'd like to see for yourself, my lord," Spectre motioned to the loft he just stepped down from. "I feel you would have better judgment than I about her predicament."

It was then when they heard a soft thump against the wooden floor, and they all walked upstairs.

Tied against one of the wooden posts of the loft was a blue haired girl in blue traveling clothes. She struggled against her bindings, completely unaware of the small crowd watching her. Yusaku could have fairly assumed that she was the Oracle's sister or just a very devoted fan because Ema and Aqua appeared to recognize her because they went still when they saw her.

"Aoi?!" They both exclaimed.

The other girl lifted her head at the name, and the deep scowl on her face almost went completely away. She appeared to have been shouting something at them, but no words left her mouth. Even the sound of her feet pounding the floor were muffled. A silencing charm, Yusaku reckoned, given that Spectre must be a practitioner of the magical arts from all the posters and books.

Aqua shot Spectre an accusatory look in demand for an explanation. "Undo this!"

"I found her wandering about here days earlier," Spectre drawled, waving his hand in the air to dispel the charm. "I took pity on her and provided her shelter."

"More like shut me up in some broom closet and forgot I existed!" Voice returned, Aoi spat at him.

"Forgive me for not being accustomed to living with guests," Spectre didn't sound at all sorry. "But I did my best to keep you alive. The pixies never refuse a request from me."

Yusaku could see the anger boiling off of the girl at that. Perhaps Spectre should have reworded those last words to not imply she was a caged animal.

The two women didn't waste a moment to help their friend. Ema undid Aoi's bindings and helped her to her feet, while Aqua was quick to grab her hands and heal the chafe marks on her wrist.

"Thanks," Aoi said, but Aqua's displeased expression didn't falter.

"Just what are you doing here?" Aqua asked.

"I should be asking you that question!" Aoi snapped. "Both of you left without a word, and I had to hear about what you were up to from some guard!"

"I'm sorry," said Aqua. "We weren't even sure if we could leave, and your brother wouldn't have let us go."

"What do you mean my brother wouldn't let you?" Aoi asked. "We were so close to asking Brother to come with me around Kholsusia..."

She made a grab for Aqua's hand, ready to drag her out of Spectre's cottage. "Well, never mind that. Come, we should return to Kholusia."

"I'm afraid I can't let you do that, Lady Aoi," Ema stepped in between them, while Aqua made no objections.

"What do you mean?" Aoi eyed them warily.

"Aoi, you have to understand," Aqua answered carefully. "I chose to fulfill my duty to aid the Warrior of Darkness."

Only now did Aoi even begin to consider all the men in the room. She looked at Yusaku for a moment because Aqua directed her attention to him. Yusaku would have rather she didn't because he didn’t appreciate the disbelief on her face.

"The Warrior of Darkness?" Aoi let out a derisive laugh. "A nonbeliever?"

"Excuse me," Ai butted in. "But Yusaku here managed to cleave the sky in two and brought night back to Lakeland!"

The additional fact didn't change Aoi's opinion in the slightest.

"Wait, who is this?" Ai then remembered to ask. That's what Yusaku wanted to know.

"No need for questions, I've already done them," Spectre said. "This is Aoi Zaizen. She has little affiliation with the Sol Army… only that her brother is the oh so famous Akira Zaizen."

"You mean the guy we had to fight back at Laxan Loft?" Takeru slumped his shoulders.

"Yes, that Akira Zaizen," Ema answered, also equally unhappy for the same reasons, most likely.

Yusaku could hardly tell the resemblance between the man they fought and Aoi. Maybe it was the layer upon layer of glamour she undoubtedly put on herself to look nearly identical to Aqua. The only thing she seemed to share with her family was an indiscriminate disdain for anyone who didn't agree with Soltis. That should teach him not to make assumptions too quickly.

"Well, that's the only interesting thing about her," Spectre continued. "Otherwise, she's just a simple songbird."

"Just a simple-" Aoi turned furious. "I'll show you simple!" [1]

"And I'd like to see you try," Spectre goaded her with a smile that was borderline demented.

"Now, now," Ema was quick to keep Aoi planted on the ground with two firm hands on her shoulders. "Let's not fight."

"But-"

"We'll talk later," Aqua pleaded. "This… is not an ideal time."

Aoi wanted to open her mouth to talk back, but thought better afterwards. She folded her arms against her chest, making occasional angry looks at anyone else in the group. Moments before, Yusaku assumed he and Takeru would be most likely to get into a fight with this man, but it appeared he was wrong about that.

"That hunter's right," Spectre punctuated the uncomfortable silence. "The Sol Army will be on my front porch sooner or later. We've no need for petulant-"

"I said 'let's not fight'," Ema directed her deceptively pleasant smile at him. "We all gathered here for a reason, so let's hear it."

The hunter looked back to her nervous charge then to Revolver. This was what they all agreed upon when they started out at the beginning of the woods.

Yusaku watched him square his shoulders to prepare and found himself mirroring him subtly. At this, he froze up in disgust and moved his hands to his sides. He had some inkling what the Hanoi's plans were for him and the others, but he needed to focus on the finer details Revolver would tell him now.

"I could have divulged everything to you before after you slew the Lightwarden in Holminster," Revolver admitted. "But knowing your reservations, I had to speak to you away from the prying eyes of Soltis and… other hostile parties."

He looked over to Ai, who made an low indignant noise in his throat.

"So why are we here?" Yusaku cut Ai off before he could speak. He didn't waste more time sitting through yet another argument.

"As you know, the mission of the Hanoi Guard is to eradicate the sin eater threat," Revolver nodded. "And for years, killing a Lightwarden was impossible until now, until the former Crystal Exarch conducted the Lost Incident."

"The Lost Incident…" Yusaku heard Kusanagi mutter to himself.

"The unusual state of your aether was purposely engineered to mimic that of the Oracle," Revolver nodded towards Aqua. "But only one had proven capable of not simply resisting the immediate symptoms of affliction, but also absorbing nearly limitless amounts of all forms of aether. A true Warrior of Darkness."

At this, Revolver looked straight at Yusaku in the eye. Yusaku, not one to back down from a challenge, glared back at him.

"The Crystal Exarch gave me three things to accomplish in Il Mheg," Revolver continued. "A rendezvous with Spectre, the assembly of a proper hunting party, and the elimination of its Lightwarden. If we succeed, we will slay every Lightwarden we can locate."

"Wait, there's more?!" Takeru exclaimed.

"Of course there are," Spectre scoffed, to Takeru's chagrin. "And they're much stronger than whichever one you killed back in Lakeland."

"And that was a surprise," Revolver added sternly.

"Then what happened in Lakeland-"

"A lucky accident for the time being," Revolver cut him off.

That made sense to Yusaku. The one in Lakeland was likely nothing compared to the ones out here because these had gone long undiscovered for years, their strength festering over time.

"But once we kill a Lightwarden, we won't have to face such a foe ever again in that region," Ai mused aloud. "Better to get things over and done with, right?"

The hums of agreement Ai received made the shade glow a little.

"Just as a colony of ants that will perish in the absence of its queen," Aqua spoke as if she were reciting. "The Lightwarden upon death will cause the lesser creatures within its sphere of influence to disperse."

"Well, that's not… a lie," Kusanagi pondered, and Takeru reluctantly nodded. "While we were out in Laxan Loft, we didn't run into a single sin eater, and it was peak hours if the time was right."

"In addition to restoring the night to the fae folk, the Crystarium will gain a potential ally," Spectre added. "In a sense, we are killing two birds with one stone. Could be useful in our little war with Soltis."

Little would be an understatement, Yusaku wanted to tell him, but thought better against it.

"Exactly," Revolver said. "So what will it be?"

No one could immediately answer. Not that Yusaku could blame anyone. To embark on a glorified bounty placed by the Hanoi Guard wasn't something Yusaku could simply agree to like the marks he always picked up in Lakeland.

Neither Revolver nor Spectre were pleased with the amount of hesitation that went on.

"Three million gil," Revolver said out of the blue.

"What?" Yusaku wasn't sure whether to be offended or surprised.

"I'm offering you three million gil for your cooperation," Revolver nodded curtly.

"But why?"

"You're hunters, are you not?" Revolver shrugged. "Clearly, you speak in terms of coin."

"And you'd empty your coffers just to persuade us?" Kusanagi asked. "What would the Crystal Exarch think of making such a unilateral decision?"

"We of the Hanoi Guard place the safety of our realm at the utmost priority," Revolver asserted. "We do so at all costs to forestall the tragedy. The Exarch understands this as well."

The money was tempting, not that Yusaku needed that much money, however. If they do succeed, he would have to renegotiate to simply take the amount needed to keep Takeru's inn running smoothly and to fund his and Kusanagi's research on aether. It almost seemed like everything had fallen into place for him, and he couldn't truly hate this situation because this was all likely masterminded by the Exarch, his savior, possibly.

"If that's what the Crystal Exarch requested of me, then I'll come along," was all Yusaku could really say. "But we can decide on the money afterwards."

"Very well," said Revolver. Any kind of yes was good enough for him. "We can arrange those terms after we can confirm these details with the Crystal Exarch."

Ai stepped forth, hands clasped to his chest. "And as for me?"

"We will decide what to do with those remaining Ignis when the situation arises," Yusaku spoke up to play to Revolver's sense of honor. "Just as we will be 'testing' ourselves against Il Mheg's Lightwarden, so too can you test Ai's allegiances."

Revolver looked from him to Ai, and gave the proposal some thought.

"I will excuse your presence for now," Revolver corrected himself. "He appears to be an inseparable part to you, and as of now, I cannot risk any major changes to this plan."

"So you won't ever think of exorcising me afterwards?" Ai asked, looking ever slightly hopeful. "Not ever?"

"I haven't left that option off the table," Revolver didn't budge.

Ai let out a frustrated laugh, embarrassed about his own excitement. That was on him for jumping to conclusions too fast, Yusaku thought to himself.

"I won't lie on this, but the Lightwardens were of Ignis creation," Ai said. "So long as you allow me to confront any Ignis we come across first…"

Revolver neither agreed nor disagreed with the shade on this matter, and moved on to the rest of the party. Ema and Aqua wordlessly bowed their heads, already invested in this situation to begin with. Aoi didn't do such a thing until Aqua gently nudged her to at least nod.

The only people left were Takeru and Kusanagi. They had more freedom than Yusaku did to abandon this quest, but Yusaku knew they wouldn't simply leave. Even so, Revolver was honorable enough to ask for their approval.

"I'm still not sure if I understand it all myself," Takeru shrugged. "But wherever Yusaku goes, I go."

"I concur," Kusanagi nodded. "What I do, I do for Jin and these boys, but I will follow you so long as me or any of my friends come to grievous harm."

"And I will hold to that promise as best I can," Revolver said. "This will be my first and final favor to ask of you."

"So do we know exactly this Lightwarden's whereabouts?" Ema asked, already raring to go.

"That we do," Spectre nodded. "According to the fae, it's all but certainly imprisoned within Lyhe Ghiah, that castle that sits in the midst of the lake."

Yusaku recalled such a castle while they were on the way here. If he remembered correctly, it was one of the remaining examples of Voeburtite architecture that had yet to be worn down by time and catastrophe.

"Of course, in the way of the fae, such a stronghold require the four relics," Spectre added. "But worry not, I've grown adept at courting the cooperation of the fae. Thus I shall accompany you."

Takeru and Aoi made a small scoff behind Yusaku, while Yusaku tried not to let his own exasperation show. Whatever got him out of Il Mheg and possibly closer to his own goals, he would deal with this.

* * *

♬ | Bedlam's Brink by Masyoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0YMmRuFffo) | Spotify

"General!" Hayami caught Queen right outside her quarters, a scroll in hand. "I've brought you Sir Zaizen's report."

"My thanks," The general took the scroll off her hands and unfurled it to read the contents. She didn't take long because she quickly closed it again and handed it off to a nearby attendant to deliver back in her quarters.

"Whoa," Hayami couldn't stop the words escaping her mouth.

"What is it?" Her blunder did not escape Queen's eye. "Out with it."

"No, I…" Hayami wasn't sure how to get herself out of this. "I… was impressed at how fast you read that report.

"As general of Soltis's military, of course I must be able to," Queen remarked. "But good timing. I was just about to deliver to the mayor his daily tidings."

"Oh, I was… just about to go see to the mayor's chambers myself," Good thing she, too could use this to make a conversation out of this. "I was to attend to the choir."

"Ah, yes, the choir," said the general as she took off in direction of the mayor's chambers. "I forget which days they perform for the mayor."

"Well, they don't sing for him often," Hayami struggled to keep up with the other woman's gait. "Today was just something he requested on a whim."

"Hm," Queen hummed, and they reached the mayor's chamber, the most extravagant room in the entire city-state. They were met with a crowd of concerned citizens but were allowed passage through when one of the soldiers among their numbers recognized Queen.

"G-General!" One soldier stammered. "Lord Kitamura! He…"

"Let us through," Queen commanded, and everyone obeyed without complaint. Hayami could almost envy at how much power this woman had through simply a few words. Most times she had to wrestle through the crowd to get anywhere.

The Mayor of Soltis was a large, stocky man, his robes threatening to burst at the slightest budge. Many members of the free class weighed thrice as much as their own bonded servants, but no spoiled noble's build could ever compare to the sheer corpulence of their dear ruler. Despite the chirurgeon's reports of Lord Kitamura's startlingly good health, Akira was inclined to doubt that someone so large could even be remotely fit. [2]

Even though Lord Kitamura was difficult to take seriously at first sight, he was not without dangerous servants. Accompanying him among the cushions were a cluster of sin eaters, docile and preoccupied with preening their wings instead of devouring anything in sight.

Despite the presence of man, they were cowed by Lord Kitamura's will, and so they spent the rest of their days as pampered pets. Hayami didn't like to speculate how he did it, but so long as they didn't hurt anyone, the citizens of Soltis learned to tolerate their presence.

"Mercy… mercy…"

Hayami saw a Mystel man hunched over on the center floor of the chamber. He clutched his arm as it bled. A knife lay in a puddle of his own blood. His tail was tucked between his legs, but the gesture likely brought little comfort to the pain he was in.

"You should be ashamed of yourself!" Lord Kitamura condemned the man. "You claim to be a man of business, yet your subsequent conduct has shown you to be anything but!"

"Milord…" The man moaned. "I… I beg you…"

"Our city was built on love for one's fellow man," the mayor continued into a roar. "Those who have naught to give and live only to take are a blight on our society! Sinners!"

His voice shook the chamber and struck terror down to Hayami's bones. She looked to Queen, who looked equally alarmed by the mayor's behavior, but still she stood tall.

"You refuse to fling yourself off my balcony, and now you refuse to offer your flesh to my sin eaters?" Lord Kitamura's voice returned to a scornful lull. "A wholly unsatisfactory performance!"

The man on the floor continued to shiver and sob. No one stepped forth to help the man with his injuries, and as much as Hayami wanted to, she couldn't find it in herself to try. Whatever this man did, he must have deserved this punishment. The most common crime in Soltis was fraud, ranging from free citizens who faked their papers to the bonded servants who couldn't live up their employer's expectations.

"Now see here, sinner," Lord Kitamura leaned forward as best as he could. "Do you understand what it takes maintain such a paradise in this barren, broken world of ours?"

"N-No…"

"The guarantee of safety and stability. The knowledge that if one only abides by the rules, one has naught to fear. Do you understand?"

"Y-Yes… milord…"

"I alone could have offer you these things, for I alone command the sin eaters," he motioned to the sin eaters lazing about on the cushions beside him. "I… am the voice of justice, and you dared oppose me as a villain to what I represent. For shame."

Hayami heard the others around her whisper amongst themselves. Not a single word of criticism among them, only praise and awe at the Lord Kitamura's might.

"What wonderful words, good mayor," Queen finally spoke out, stepping out into the chamber. She placed herself between him and the trembling fraud. A snap of the fingers, and two Sol soldiers came forward at full attention.

"Take him out to the gates," she ordered them. "Lord Kitamura's floors need not be stained by such taint."

Hayami had never seen someone sigh in relief that he was getting kicked out of Soltis, but considering his options were to lose an arm or die from falling from an certain height. The soldiers were meticulous not to let another drop of blood fall on the floor as they dragged the man out. Now that the drama was over, everyone shuffled out of the chambers, leaving behind the bonded servants and officials.

"General… Queen," Lord Kitamura drew back. "What have you come here for?"

"You asked for regular reports on Sir Zaizen's search party for the Blue Angel as well as investigations into the phenomenon at Lakeland."

"Well?"

"Sir Zaizen is pursuit of the villains. It appears there was more than one individual who aided Blue Angel's kidnapping," was all Hayami heard or understood from Queen's long winded report to the mayor. She was no military woman, but at least she could understand that Sir Zaizen was hard at work, and she could admire that part of him, at least.

Hayami saw the choir girls finally crawling out from behind the curtains and uncovering their ears. They had learned early on to prepare for the mayor's tantrums and ensure their voices were not affected. Perfectly trained songstresses and bards, they were. All twenty of them along with their leading singer…

"Hold on," Hayami approached the chorus. "Where's Blue Angel?"

"Not here," one boy answered. "We haven't heard from her since last week."

"Believe us, we've searched the entire Canopy for her and even asked the soldiers down at the Understory," one of the girls agreed. "I don't think she's even in Soltis anymore."

"Oh dear," another sighed. "How are we going to continue our performances without her?"

* * *

♬ | Thicker Than a Knife's Blade by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0YMmRuFffo) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/2Je1Qj9G135hO9HjhbG2d0?si=gYcZw4UJTOO-weRe_bR5Zg)

After much fussing and arguing, everyone gave in to the Oracle's suggestion to rest awhile. Homura and Zaizen were less willing to set discussion aside, but Kusanagi and Bessho were quick to cool them down. Fujiki, surprisingly, didn't complain and apparently had ended up taking a corner of the room to sleep sitting up. The Dark Ignis was nowhere to be seen, likely resting the same time as his host. After all that happened today, all that he learned today, Ryoken couldn't blame Fujiki for being so dead tired.

Every so often, Ryoken kept an eye on the door of his room. Maintaining his disguise would be difficult in the presence of strangers, but fortunately, Spectre at some point had the pixies build a guest chamber specifically for Ryoken's visits. He never asked what Spectre did to make the pixies obey his requests so readily, but the fae never let his identity slip out to anyone. Ryoken never stayed long, so the room was understandably empty with only a bed and an armoire.

Ryoken hadn't been here in half a year, which explained the layer of dust caking the scarce furniture in the room. Except for the bed. The pixies cared enough about the bed to keep it clean. Likely a minimal request on Spectre's part.

Setting his visor on the armoire, he reached into one of the compartments for a spare dispeller. A small snap, and Ryoken felt the thin layer of glamour lift from his entire being. He watched the dark scales on his arms turn back to their original pale color and shook off the fringe that fell over his eyes.

Ryoken couldn't help the small sigh of relief. Glamour may have been the least restrictive method of disguise, but he always felt the cloying feeling of entrapment whenever he ventured outside as Revolver instead of himself.

But he knew better now than to simply do as his heart desired. The last time he made no efforr to hide his relation to the Crystal Exarch, he found himself an unwitting player of a horrific experiment, among other regrettable things. The times after his father's death had been hard, but Ryoken tried not to dwell on the guilt that had built up over the passing years. There was little room to hesitate when he had a city to lead, a world to save.

The first order of business before rest was disassembling and cleaning his handgonne. He left his culverin at home for something more maintainable for the road. Still, he had to clean every working part of it rather often. His gunblade would require the same treatment as well, but at least if he couldn't shoot with it, he could at least lob something's limb off with the edge.

He had just finished the first step when he felt a presence approaching his room. Then, a light knock.

"Tis I," Spectre was muffled behind the door. "I've brought water from the nearby spring."

"Enter," he commanded, and Spectre took this as an invitation to step inside. So attuned to his needs as ever, he carried the water in a small tub of water and set it atop the armoire.

"My thanks," Ryoken didn't so much as spare a glance at Spectre, prompting a small huff on the latter's part. Something was bothering his friend.

"What are you doing here running around Il Mheg?" Spectre asked bluntly. "You shouldn't be here, Exarch."

Ryoken toon a deep breath. He had anticipated that Spectre would be thoroughly displeased about his latest decisions. Any time spent away from the tower meant slower response in case of a wave of sin eater deciding to target it. If the Crystarium was lost, then his entire mission was forfeit, and Spectre never failed to remind him of that.

"There were more people in this party than I anticipated," said Ryoken. "I'm remaining here so we can both see just how well we fare against a Lightwarden, a real proper one."

"And who's holding down the fort back at the Crystarium?"

That was easy. "Well, Pandor is-"

"Pandor is hardly convincing," Spectre cut right through. "It won't take long for people to notice she's missing when she's out there looking like you."

"I don't step out of my tower as myself most of the time, so she doesn't have to play as me all the time," Ryoken asked. "No one can really tell if they've never even seen me."

Spectre didn't look like arguing any further and took one beleaguered sigh. "No matter how much we tell you to exercise caution, you still intend to lead this party, aren't you?"

Revolver didn't reply and busied himself with cleaning the barrel of his gun of the residual dust that was left behind by the aether channeled through it.

"We don't have much time," he continued. "Those I've gathered here under this roof tonight, they're all we have left of my Father's project."

"The only ones left?"

"As far as my knowledge goes, yes, only four of us, the Oracle included, are fit to fight the sin eaters," Ryoken recalled the disheartening bo3dy count collected from that incident. All those children were either dead from the start or would later succumb to their wounds. "Yusaku Fujiki in particular possesses the constitution to withstand and store away massive amounts of Light, as close to what Father intended."

"So of all people, that Mystel will be most important to this mission?" Spectre raised an eyebrow.

"It's as that Ignis said," Ryoken answered. "He did kill the Lightwarden and didn't die from all that aether. He also happens to be one of the most talented hunters, since you've been gone, at least."

Spectre let out a discontented huff at the jab, still processing the truthfulness of it all. After all, never in their recent memory had they ever heard of a Lightwarden permanently slain. He certainly wasn't about to start having hope now.

Ryoken recalled too well the first time they tried to kill the Lightwarden of Lakeland with Spectre alone. They had been so convinced that Spectre could play the part on his own. And yet even with the ability to ward off the corruption, they couldn't vanquish it completely. They lost a great many men that day, and the Hanoi Guard were ordered not to attempt something so risky again.

"In any case," Ryoken continued. "He and the rest of the people gathered here will be important in the trials to come. It may be not the ideal situation my father prepared me for, but we must continue nonetheless." [3]

"I'll play fair with them," Spectre said. "But your regard for them is certainly not reciprocated. You would do well not to be so fixated on that Mystel."

Ryoken blinked back. He hadn't been talking about Fujiki all that much. "Fixated? How am I fixated on him?"

"His association with an Ignis bothers me as much as it does you, but I still don't think that warranted you coming all the way out here." Spectre walked around the armoire to get a good look at him. "Do you mistrust me that much, Ryoken?"

After their unsuccessful attempts to kill the Lightwardens on their own, Spectre stayed busy, even electing to venture beyond Lakeland to parley with the fae folk to provide research on the Lightwardens. Without his ability to endure the corruption of the Light, Spectre wouldn't have gotten this far and gathered this much information about the Lightwardens. And rest of them wouldn't be out here with a purpose. Spectre was the closest ally he could ever ask for.

"We've been through thick and thin, Spectre, and this mission is most certainly yours," Ryoken reassured him. "But the animosity those people have for our cause could get in the way. Consider my company as an anchor for their frustrations, especially in the case of the Mystel."

Yes, Ryoken thought to himself, that was the explanation. He trusted Spectre, yes, but he couldn't take risks when they weren't even sure their motley crew had slim chances of success. The Oracle foretold they could meet ominous ends, but so long as they won against the sin eaters and the Ignis that birthed them, bitter rivalries or no.

"Prepared as always," Spectre sighed, lazily fiddling with a drying handgonne pieces on the armoire. "Just don't be an absolute fool."

"I'm trying."

"Of course you are."

"Don't touch that."

"Fine, fine," Spectre grumbled.

* * *

[1] Aoi is snappier because she's blended with her Blue personas and will spend the early portion of the story being a bit bratty. To be fair, Spectre does not play with anyone outside of Hanoi.

[2] Choosing who would serve best as Lord Vauthry was somewhat of a challenge because he's meant to start out an ineffectual ruler who symbolizes the excess and overindulgence of his city into an actual living nightmare. Because Lightning is the ultimate main antagonist, I had originally thought to give this role to Bohman and Haru, but I realized that would take away Bohman's appeal, so I gave it to Kitamura, that one guy who tried to replace Akira and only lasted a few episodes.

[3] Once again in summary: the Ignis supposedly died because some of them chickened out on fully destroying the world. Aqua was the only one able to reincarnate to fight monsters with Soltis and Hanoi. SOL got tired of the struggle and joined the monsters instead. Kogami got mad and decided to kidnap Aqua and make child soldiers with abilities like hers. It ended poorly, everyone found out about it, Hanoi covered it up, SOL sniped Kogami, and now neither city likes each other but are too caught up in their own problems to start a war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is probably my least favorite chapter to write bc it's a lot of facelifting the original dialogue from Shadowbringers for exposition, especially Lord Kitamura's scene. Had a really hard time figuring out what to put in after realizing I had to rewrite it.
> 
> I gave up on making that "help me defeat the big bad" talk realistic. Well, at least Spectre got his chapter's dose of bullying and not giving a care what others think of him.


	10. keys to the castle

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Revolver watches the others eat before their journey begins and has feelings about it. They decide to split the task of collecting the required relics amongst themselves: Yusaku, Takeru, Revolver, and Kusanagi will enter the domain of Dohn Mheg, while Aqua and the others will parley with the pixies and the Nu Mou. Aoi confronts Aqua about the Blue Angel's calling.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, apologies for the mess from the previous chapter. Thank you for your patience. Now back to our usual programming: angst and drama.

♬ | No Greater Sorrow - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLMYy1LTEsI) | Spotify

Their rest over, Spectre's cottage was brimming with more activity than had ever been seen since its construction. The hunters were the first to rise, of course, and they were quick to begin preparing food and supplies. When Revolver emerged out of his quarters, he heard from outside the distinct sound of a crackling eater splashing and metal scraping.

The smell of sizzling broth and sausages wafted all throughout the cottage, drawing Revolver's attention from their preparations to the front porch, where Kusanagi had lit a fire under a wide pan to make a stew.

When asked how he even got such a large quantity of sausage links, the answer was simple. Spectre was willing to lend the party his entire stock of cured meats for the journey, saying he had no need for his pantry anymore now that he was joining them. The hunters were wary of his generosity at first, but after going inside to see just how large the pantry was, no one argued with him any longer.

"Is it done?" Takeru hovered eagerly over Kusanagi's shoulder. Yusaku was not as forward, but his constant glances to the pan betrayed his hunger. Revolver had the urge to walk over and peer into the pan himself, but had thought agajnst the idea. He could wait.

"Almost," Kusanagi grinned as if he had forgotten all the strife that led him here. "It's not often we cook for such a large party."

"Still, a stew?" Revolver never thought Yusaku could actually whine until now. "Wouldn't sandwiches be more sensible?"

Revolver had to agree. A sandwich was far more practical for travel than a stew.

"As much as you like them better, we need to save the biscuits and loaves for later," Kusanagi said as he stirred. "Besides, we're due for a long journey. Might as well start off on a good note."

He then began pouring out portions into Yusaku and Takeru's bowls, taking care to distribute the meals evenly. He turned around to get another ladle full when Yusaku decided now was a good time to walk away. His plan to eat a little less than he should fell through when Kusanagi caught him by the shoulder and dragged him back.

"Yusaku," Kusanagi said sharply, adding more to the bowl till the stew was close to the rim. "Could you at least fill your bowl?"

"I don't need that much," Yusaku protested quietly. "Ask Takeru to take the leftovers."

"And leave you only as skin and bones?" Takeru scoffed. "I may eat more than you, but I refuse to steal your share."

"And my share!" Ai piped up. "You're eating for two now!"

Revolver fought himself from making a face at that last one. That Ignis needed to work on his phrasing.

"Ai's... probably right," Kusanagi said uneasily. "We won't be able to eat for a while after this, so you best eat up now."

Revolver didn't know how to describe those three (or four). They seemed... oddly content, and it wound a tight knot in his chest. Revolver had no right or reason to think fondly of his past, but he did miss those moments, when all his father and his assistants still lived in the tower and kept him company, when he wasn't saddled with the weight of his duty, his mistakes.

With a heavy sigh, Revolver reached into his inner pocket for a satchel of caramels. Originally, he had stolen them from his father's assistants who used them to stave off hunger on long nights of work. Now he was old enough to order the Crystalline Mean to make an ample supply, both for himself and anyone in the Hanoi Guard who needed then on late patrols. Sweets provided a good distraction from heavy thoughts.

Takeru, who had been just passing by him with some additional firewood, gave him the most critical look.

"Seriously? Caramels?"

"I eat however I want to," Revolver grumbled between chewing.

"Takeru," Kusanagi called out as he carried a bowl over to him. "Take this upstairs to the other one."

"Me? But..."

"I don't think he'll be coming down here any time soon," Kusanagi said. "And no one is skipping meal time. You know the rules."

The young hunter reluctantly did as he was told, and he left Revolver in peace. Revolver hoped that Spectre hadn't locked his door on them, although he imagined Takeru would have no qualms about breaking down the door if he did.

"Er… Revolver? Anyone home?"

Revolver found himself staring straight down at a steaming bowl of stew. Not once did he assume that Kusanagi would think to prepare a ration for him. With the way everyone left on the porch was staring, Revolver must have looked a fool.

"I'm sorry?"

"You think I couldn't hear your stomach growling from where I was?" Kusanagi sighed. "We're not about to let you starve on sweets."

That wasn't exactly true. Revolver was planning on sneaking away to teleport back to the Crystarium for supplies for himself and Spectre. Of course, he couldn't just admit that to these hunters, lest he wished his own identity revealed.

"I..."

"We may not be at all friends, nor are we loyal to your Exarch," Kusanagi continued over him. "But we're not about to force you to starve on scraps and sweets."

But he didn't have to go so far as to give food directly to him, Revolver thought. Nevertheless, he couldn't turn down a rare gesture of good will from Kusanagi. He quickly swallowed the lump of caramel.

"My thanks," he murmured and took the bowl off of Kusanagi's hands. The food looked as good as something scrounged up on the road could look like, but it didn't look completely unappetizing. The stew itself was… inexplicably good. How Kusanagi managed to use some plain meats and elevate it to something more than edible was beyond him. Must be another way the man put his scholarly knowledge of plants to use beyond medicine.

Revolver wanted to give his compliments, but Kusanagi was already out of comfortable hearing range. He highly doubted the man would be inclined to stop and listen.

"Bet he was brooding, like you," Ai said to Yusaku. "What? You do brood a lot!"

Out from the corner of his eye, Revolver saw them turning away from him as if they hadn't been watching the scene play out. Instead, the Ignis resumed bothering his host with questions about the quality of the stew. Despite his apparent irritation, Yusaku answered nonetheless, much to his Ignis's delight, and Revolver's dismay. The more that Ignis ingratiated himself with the hunters, the harder it would be to eliminate him. With renewed vigor, Revolver dug back into his stew to avoid thinking anymore about the Ignis.

Not long after, Takeru returned with a look of absolute relief. He noticed that Revolver himself was eating, but he was mindful to keep his complaints to himself, receive his second helping, and settle down a small space away from Yusaku. He was followed by the women, who must have only risen now.

"Oh, you're already done?" Ema noted as she came out onto the porch with Aqua and Aoi in tow. "Shame, I would have joined you."

"I apologize for our tardiness," Aqua made a small bow, but Kusanagi waved her off.

"Tis no trouble," he said. "We didn't even need hunting this time, so we still have time to spare for you ladies."

Kusanagi set a filled bowl on a nearby table and immediately went about to prepare the next one. "We have enough for second helpings, so don't be shy about asking."

Aqua accepted the plate with a small thanks. She took one spoonful, and all the drowsiness vanished from her face.

Kusanagi chuckled at how pleased she sounded. "You like it?"

"Very!" Aqua excitedly took another stab at another piece of sausage. "It's nothing like the food they make in Soltis!"

"You flatter me, milady," Kusanagi made an embarrassed laugh. "But I don't think my cooking could compare to the likes of Soltis' chefs."

"That's nonsense!" Aqua protested. "Eating this, I would have guessed you had some proper learning!"

"Once again, my deepest thanks."

"Proper or not, this is excellent," Ema quipped while still chewing. "It's not often you get good food on the road."

"Comes with the territory when you're taking care of some growing boys," Kusanagi shrugged helplessly. "Something that doesn't get repeated enough on hunts: nutrition."

Very true, Revolver thought to himself. Lakeland's hunters could learn a thing or two from this man.

"Now how about you give this one to your friend over there," Kusanagi pointed his chin at Aoi's direction. Aqua nodded eagerly and picked up the bowl, taking care not to let the contents spill out onto the floor as she strode over to her friend, companion, whatever Aoi was. Revolver didn't want to make presumptions.

For all the fury she possessed at their first meeting, Aoi was surprisingly quiet for the majority of the morning. She spent the majority of her time downstairs separate from the rest of them, glaring at Revolver's direction or getting lost in thoughts he had no business or interest in. She was caught off guard when Aqua nudged the bowl into her hands. Aoi looked down at the meal then gave the girl a questioning look.

"Eat," Aqua urged her. "You'll need it for the rest of the day."

Aoi looked ready to protest at first, but after a while, she grumbled and took a vicious bite out of the sausage. Aqua settled down on the floor next to her and began eating as well, making worried glances at Aoi as she went.

Revolver made a mental note to either have himself or Spectre keeping an eye on those two. Aqua was unlikely to go running back to Soltis, although she had a choice to, but Aoi was certain to cause problems for them on behalf of Sir Zaizen's behest.

"She has a lot of bite, I'll give you that, but she won't be a issue," Spectre had said of her. "If she does interfere too heavily with our plans, I'm confident you and I can deal with her swiftly."

The idea of dispatching Aoi in the presence of her friends didn't sit well with Revolver entirely. After all, they would be in the presence of not only Aqua, but also her bodyguard, whom he understood was also close to Aoi. Not only that, the other hunters (and the Ignis) wouldn't approve either. Here's to hoping that things wouldn't come to that, and Aoi would be easily cowed by her own friends and allies.

By the time they were finished eating and cleaning up after themselves, Spectre descended down from his study upstairs with a parcel wrapped in leaves.

"Tis done," Spectre announced. "The pixies will be pleased with what I've made."

For the first relic, the party were to seek the cooperation of the pixies with an elaborate gift. Revolver had offered at first to gather the required materials, but Spectre had already thought ahead on that. The only step left was simply assembling them, so Spectre spent the entire while doing just that.

"Then that means we'll get the first relic from them immediately?" Kusanagi asked warily.

"Depends on how friendly you are with them," Spectre answered. "But since you did make it here, I assume you're on good terms."

"We do," Yusaku answered quickly, while Ai made a prideful chortle behind him.

"Then all is in order," Revolver was already off the porch and on the beaten path. "Let us set forth to Lydha Lran."

* * *

♬ | By Design by Nobuo Uematsu | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFnc0rlavE4) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/6HYdMVL17OzvDAD9Nt7cAD?si=eNKtku92QNysBaXTc8dJvA)

The pixies were predictably elated that their dear playthings returned. Their childishness had yet to wear off on them, but after the mishap in the early leg of their journey, most of them knew better than to converse casually with the fae. That didn't stop the pixies from showering them with affection. The Oracle's friend, who had inexplicably evaded the pixies' before running into Spectre, was the popular newcomer among the little spirits.

"Hair and eyes as blue as the other!"

"Aye, 'twould seem this one is a twin!" One of the pixies cooed at her and the Oracle. "How delightful!"

Aoi didn't correct them on their assumptions, but she wasn't warming up to them, either. She quickly hooked her arm around Aqua's and eyed each and every one of them with suspicion.

"I made you promise to return to me," said the pixie with whom Yusaku had formed a pact. "But I was not prepared for you to come so soon!"

Yusaku looked back to everyone, and received various nods of approval. After all, he possessed the faerie pact, so he was to speak on their behalf.

"We've come to ask for a favor," Yusaku turned back to the pixie.

"What is it you desire?" Roboppy looked to the rest of them. "Rusty old coins like you mortals are wont to collect, perhaps?"

"We're slaying the Lightwarden of this land," the Ignis clapped his hands excitedly. "And we need your help to get us into that castle over there."

"You mean Lyhe Ghiah?" Roboppy was not as enthused, alarmed even. "You might as well ask for your death!"

"Oh, Roboppy," the Ignis teased them. "If you really wanted to play some more, you could just ask."

"'Twas not a jest!" This was the first time Revolver had ever seen a pixie look so nervous. "Because… the Lightwarden is our king and ruler, Titania…"

Ai's grin fell away quickly, and everyone else was taken aback by the new information.

Revolver gave Spectre a sharp look. The elf had neglected to mention this part of his findings, and how this could pose a problem. First, the Lightwarden was no beast to put down, but a figure of great import in these lands. Second, a faerie king, the figure who united the various faerie tribes, would no doubt be reapected by their subjects. And third, this would likely lend resistance towards the idea of allowing foreigners such as themselves to slay their king.

"You…" Aqua was perplexed. "You are being lorded over by a Lightwarden?"

"It was not always that way, of course," Roboppy began to explain. "Our king fought the first Lightwarden that threatened our home, and they won."

"But in doing so, they were exposed to all that Light and were corrupted, becoming a new Lightwarden themselves," Yusaku deduced correctly.

"Yes," Roboppy nodded solemnly. "Now, they're king only in name. The wise and just king we once respected and loved is here no longer. That is why all us fae had sealed them in the castle and divided the seal's keys amongst ourselves, to be kept apart until the time was right..."

Still, the pixie was hesitant, but then Yusaku reached out to stroke them by the hand. Even if his fingers were awkward and larger than theirs, the gesture was still appreciated.

"You can trust us to do the job," Yusaku spoke resolutely. All the worry was swept away in an instant. To say this pixie was smitten with the Mystel was an understatement.

"Well, if that's what you want… who are we to argue?" Roboppy shrugged helplessly. "I shall speak with the others first, but I'm sure they'll agree to give you the white dress."

The pixie fluttered off to gather their fellow villagers. The party were left standing in the overgrown town square, with only the view of the winged castle in the distance. Revolver took to looking up at the everlasting light radiating down on them. If the pixies plan to take longer, they'll have to take shelter under a tree.

"A good thing that the pixies are so agreeable," Ema broke the silence. "Who knew a pact would go such a long way?"

"I can't imagine the other relics would be as easy to obtain," Takeru folded his arms across his chest. The others around him nodded silently in agreement.

"Then we should divide the relics among us," Ema then suggested.

"An excellent proposition," Spectre agreed. "To repeat what the pixie said, we must claim the shell crown from the fuath underneath Long Mirror Lake. Then we must take to the northwest where the Nu Mou keep the stone scepter. Then we have the amaro, who hold the crystal shoes."

"We'll deal with the... er... fuath, you call it?" Takeru suggested. "And Aqua and her friends can go speak to the Nu Mou."

"We're with the fuath?" Ai whined. "But I don't like the fuath..."

Revolver assumed the Ignis would be more enthused about meeting the fuath. He did get along with the pixies when they first arrived in Lydha Lhran.

"Well, I'm not going near the water," Aoi insisted, hanging close by to her friend. "And where Aqua goes, I go. That is not negotiable."

"Well, it seems there's no other way," Kusanagi shrugged, and the Ignis looked pleadingly at Yusaku.

"You don't have to be present for the entire time if you don't want to see them," Instead, Yusaku was more stern. "Hide if you must, but so long as you respond to my calls."

And as he requested, the Ignis excused himself from the conversation entirely. Revolver hoped that he wouldn't have to deal with the shade's antics for the foreseeable future.

"Then I shall escort the Oracle and her comrades up north to Pla Enni," Spectre followed quickly. "The journey there is quite some ways, and I do hold the most knowledge of the terrain here, after all."

Aoi looked most scandalized that Spectre should be grouped with her, but seeing as Aqua had no objections, she, too, didn't protest.

"In that case, I shall accompany the hunters to engage with the fuath," Revolver watched Ai slump miserably in the corner of his eye. He then looked to Yusaku, who remained cold as ever. The Mystel should have expected this outcome, knowing that he could never escape the watchful eye of the Hanoi in this quest.

"Splendid!" Uncontested, Spectre clapped his hands together. "Once the pixies come back with the white dress, we can be on our way. We shall meet again at Wokeldorf."

"Yusaku! I'm back!" On cue, Roboppy returned and flew circles around Yusaku. Revolver found the dizzying look on the hunter's face absolutely comical.

"Here," Roboppy handed them a bundle of shimmering silk. "This is the dress you had requested. It's been in our safekeeping for years, but we shall entrust this relic to you."

"Are you sure?" Yusaku asked, likely out of politeness.

"Of course, for custom demands it," Roboppy nodded. "Though you're most certainly going to your deaths, the others agreed that we should at least let you mortals try."

"Eager to see us die, are you?" Takeru smiled wryly, and the pixie giggled sweetly.

"We wish you luck on finding all the other relics! And please, please summon me when you need my help, Yusaku!"

"I will," Yusaku promised.

Their first relic claimed, the party split up as planned. Their farewells were minimal, since few of them really knew each other between the two groups, save for Spectre and Revolver himself, who only shared a quick exchange. Revolver and the hunters then promptly hiked towards the edge of Long Mirror Lake, a massive body of water not far from Lydha Lhran.

Keeping his mind off of the constant daggers glaring into his back from his unlikely companions, Revolver could make out an ornate arch made of bent reeds. So this must be the Untouchable Gate, as Spectre had described to him. The grisly number of leafmen scattered about the entrance more or less confirmed it. He stepped forward to the edge of the water, and saw his masked reflection looking back at him.

"Hearken unto me, O spirits of the water," Revolver called out. "We have come with an entreaty."

His requests were met with no answer, and the entire party stood in an uncomfortable silence.

"Not in much of a talkative mood, are they?" Takeru shrugged. "I'm sorry, but remind me what these creatures are again? Never cared to read a bestiary back in Lakeland."

"We're dealing with the fuath, or to put it simply, water spirits," Revolver informed him. "They usually reside in the bottom of lakes. I'm not sure why my calls aren't working, but we'll have to search into the lake."

"Oh, huh," Takeru hummed absently. "Good thing we can all swim, right?"

"You and Yusaku can swim like eels, but I should be able to manage," said Kusanagi, while Yusaku nodded in agreement.

"I don't believe such skills will be of much use against the fuath," Revolver countered them. "These are faeries, after all. You'd have to be incredibly confident that you can outswim an army of magical beings."

"So then if we make one wrong step, we're entirely doomed?" Takeru quipped. "Lovely."

Revolver turned back to the gate, unsure of what to do next. He assumed that the fuath would be most eager to receive anyone, but it appeared that some more legwork would be required. This must be why Spectre was so willing to leave this task to him and the hunters, besides the fact that the elven man was not very buoyant.

"If the fuath aren't willing to come out, perhaps we should do something to get their attention?" Kusanagi suggested.

"That's not a bad idea," Takeru started cracking his knuckles. "How about starting a fire by their gate? Anyone got a match?"

"And risk setting these leafmen aflame?" Revolver was taken aback. "We'd have not only the Sol army, but the entire faerie kingdom against us if we so much as harmed their coveted shrubbery."

"Then do you have a better suggestion?" Yusaku asked him.

"I-"

"Well, well, aren't we a lively lot!"

A disembodied voice cut their argument short, and they looked back at the gate with caution.

"It speaks?" Takeru gasped.

"We do, indeed!" said the voice. "Tis we, Aenc Thon, prince of the fuath. We heard that you mortals have an entreaty for us, yes?"

"We do," Revolver straightened himself and answered. It wouldn't do to be improper before a species so mischievous. At least they were willing to make contact with them.

"Oh, an entreaty from mortals — what a treat!" the fuath cackled. "Please do tell us, mortals! What is it that you seek?"

"My comrades and I are on a quest to vanquish the Lightwarden of Il Mheg," Revolver explained, recalling what Spectre instructed him to say. "We humbly ask to borrow the shell crown, which is under your people's protection."

"Oh? Is that all?" The fuath was delighted by the request. "Of course, of course! You may have it! Nay, you shall have it!"

"Just like that?" Takeru doubted them. "We don't have to… drown one of our own or anything as payment?"

"Ohoho, no need to be so suspicious!" They scoffed. "The crown means little to us, is all. As a matter of fact, we couldn't care less what becomes of the faerie king, nor the world for that matter."

At least they weren't resistant to the idea, Revolver thought. "So you will just give us the crown and let us be on our merry way, then?"

"Hmmmmmm, we could do that, but now that you mention that…" the fuath began to ponder. "We do so seldom have mortal visitors. It would be wasteful not to make the most of you… How about you come hither to our domain?"

"And what would you have us do there?" Yusaku asked.

"Nothing much, just give us thrilling sport in exchange for the crown," the fuath answered casually. "Simply pass through the Untouchable Gate, and you'll be granted entry to Dohn Mheg, our home! Oh, we suggest you bring a few potions, just to be safe."

At that, Takeru made an exasperated motion, while Yusaku and Kusanagi looked ready to draw their weapons. Revolver suspected this would happen. The fuath were often a bloodthirsty bunch. After all, they were said to be born from the souls of the drowned.

Revolver moved to draw out his gunblade when he heard the brief hum of magic beside him. Yusaku had his own sword out and dousing himself in a light cloud of aether that would no doubt attract every denizen in Dohn Mheg.

"What are you doing, Fujiki?"

"I'm leading," Yusaku declared, even stepping between him and the gate to make his point.

"You're mistaken, Fujiki, I said I was-"

"I'll lead," Yusaku said again, more forcefully this time.

Just because he had the assistance of the Ignis regulating his aether, Revolver could hardly trust Yusaku to maintaining emnity. This was uncharted territory, and Revolver would very much like to not die before they even started.

"Just let him do it," Kusanagi took Yusaku's side. "If anything goes wrong, I'll patch him up."

Takeru nodded in agreement, and Revolver realized he was the only one who wanted himself to be in charge. Fair enough. These hunters were more comfortable around each other than some stranger who was paying them. Now really wasn't the time to be uncooperative.

Without a fuss, Revolver gave in and replaced the gunblade with his handgun.

"Very well, then," he waved his gun to the gate before them. "Lead the way."

Yusaku gave him one last discerning look, probably because the way Revolver expressed his resignation sounded more like goading. Revolver made a mental note to himself to steer clear of him while they were in the fuath's den. Yusaku likely wouldn't harm him, but he could count on the Mystel making his job difficult.

Eager to escape the rays of everlasting Light, they stepped through the vined arches into the watery unknown.

What lay beyond exceeded even Revolver's own expectations. A vibrant assortment of greenery, some he recognized and some he did not, began at their feet and stretched far beyond the reach of his eye. As whimsical all the flowers and butterflies were, Revolver was instantly reminded of the threat when he realized the hedged path before them were comprised of leafmen. He didn't want to imagine just how many people were tricked, perhaps drowned, by the fuath.

"Ah, our guests have arrived!" The same voice, likely Aenc Thon's, that greeted them at the entrance boomed throughout the garden. "Let's give them our most smashing welcome, shall we?"

The ground beneath them began to rumble, and looking up, they spotted an incoming crowd of massive enchanted flower baskets, with woven arms and legs, no less. Revolver recalled seeing a few when they were still lost in the fog the day before, but these ones were double the size. Just one of them could crush a short Mystel — the one leading this party in particular — in one fell swing.

"Today was a good day to put off the whiskey," Kusanagi noted. Revolver couldn't agree more.

* * *

♬ | [Fierce and Free](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h41T80eDVI) \- Masayoshi Soken | Youtube | Spotify

Perhaps Aqua should have objected to the arrangements. It was only half a bell, and Spectre was already making his life's purpose to poison any good will they started out with.

"Must you insist on wearing all that glamor?" Spectre made a jab at Aoi's choice of clothes.

Until this… gadfly brought up the question, Aqua had forgotten how unusual Aoi's situation was. Unless one was a second-rate mummer, one wouldn't wear so much glamor and makeup. In Aoi's case, she needed all the glamor to capture the likeness of the Blue Angel in her singing performances. A captive audience away from a stage wouldn't know the difference between Aoi and Aqua, but someone well versed in such illusory magic could probably tell.

"And what issue do you have about what I wear, sinner?" Aoi asked, although she was clearly uncomfortable. Aqua herself was feeling guilty that she urged Aoi to stay.

"I can tell you mean to bear the likeness of Lady Aqua here," Spectre pointed out. "And frankly, it's rather unconscionable to her character."

"What makes you think you know her more than I?" Aoi began to fume. "Aqua is my dear friend of many summers."

"Friend, fanatic, I care not what you are to the Oracle," The man shrugged. "But you sully her good name with that getup. The Oracle was a woman of legend, not some vulgar songbird."

"You should choose your words carefully, unless you want your comrades to know the poor company you are," Aoi said to him. "Revolver, was it? I bet he wouldn't be so unpleasant."

"And Revolver, I am not," Spectre sneered. "My only duty here is keeping you in line. For all my company is worth, I care only for Hanoi's plan and the Blue Angel. The real one."

For the last part, he looked directly at Aoi, who looked about ready to make good on her promise to hurt him when Aqua held her back by the shoulder.

"I think Aoi is fine the way she is," she stated. "She has the Oracle's seal of approval. I helped her design it, after all."

Now Spectre looked slightly disappointed with her as well.

"It appears I have misjudged you, Oracle. Profoundly."

"Lest you forget, Sir Spectre, we share a common goal," Aqua reminded him. "If we are to forestall the end of times, we must learn to tolerate each other's presence."

Unperturbed by the way Spectre turned his nose up at her, Aqua sucked in a deep breath and tried to focus on ahead. She was now caught in the middle of something akin to two wolverines in a territorial dispute. Aqua would have much preferred one of the hunters, Revolver, even, over the odd man out in their unhappy little party.

"Everyone, halt," Ema, the professional that she was, had chosen to minimize her presence to avoid getting dragged into the bickering, until now. "I see something up ahead."

Aqua followed the rogue's line of sight and saw something small fluttering in the distance. The faint glint blending in with the grass reminded her of something. A pixie?

"They're stray pixies," Spectre confirmed for them. "They don't appear to be from Lydha Lhran, so we cannot discern just how hostile they are to mortals."

"Well, they're in our way," Aoi noted crossly. "What are we to do then?"

"Sneak past them, perhaps?" Ema suggested immediately. "As you might know, I am a master at walking within shadows."

"Such arts won't help you here," Spectre corrected her. "The pixie are quite the tricksy lot. But worry not, there is an enchantment I have learned when dealing with fae folk."

He muttered a small incantation, entirely in fae speak, and rendered everyone invisible. Aqua suddenly found herself alone in the meadow.

"Aqua!" Aoi shouted in alarm, and Aqua felt her friend reach blindly for her arm. "What is this?"

"We call this ingenious magic 'fae cloak'," Spectre explained. "Potent enough to pass by those pixies undetected, albeit briefly."

"Excellent," Ema said approvingly. "Let us make haste. Just in case, we should split up and walk past those pixies in intervals."

"Then I shall go first," Aqua volunteered herself and felt Aoi's fingers wound themselves around hers. "Aoi can come with me to keep me safe."

Not even waiting for the others to agree, she led Aoi up the hill, but then her friend elected to step up and lead the way. Although Aoi was equally inexperienced, she was intent on her promise to protect Aqua, rapier at the ready. Aoi was never the most tactful with her words, but she was far better at the little things to show she cared.

They reached the top of the hill, where there was a wide entrance carved into the side of the cliff. As expected, the enchantment expired and fell away. They waited a while for any of those stray pixies to catch them, but thankfully, nothing happened. Aqua breathed a sigh of relief. But now that she could see Aoi clearly again, she could tell something was amiss with her friend.

"What bothers you, Aoi?" Aqua asked.

"What do you say about leaving now, while the whole group is split up?" Aoi suggested. Back when they reunited at Spectre's cottage, they had little opportunity to speak with each other. Now that they were alone, even if for a little while, Aoi saw fit to be frank.

"Aoi," she tried to explain. "I already told you, I can't run. I know you the best intentions, but I am perfectly fine."

"But you haven't looked the slightest bit happy at all," Aoi frowned. "It's almost as if you're here against your own will."

"My happiness is hardly a matter of importance," Aqua said in return. "Not when I have the power to make a difference."

"A difference?" Her friend was taken aback. "How could you want such a thing? Back in Soltis, you were safe. When you were relieved of your duties, I'm sure my brother and the others intended for you to live as your own person! Not beholden to the whims of some… some ghost!"

"You may be right, Aoi," Aqua spoke back. "But once I learned that my comfort was done at the expense of everyone outside of Soltis and under their heels, I realized I could not stay or return back to the way things were. Lord Kitamura… Queen… even Akira. They were wrong about the sinners."

"But what about me?" Aoi demanded. "Was I wrong to you?"

Aqua held her tongue. As much as it would do Aoi good to forsake her brother, and all the people they knew and cared for in Soltis, she knew she couldn't say something so cruel. But at the same time, she simply could not entertain Aoi that she would give in and go back to a caged existence. Aqua had to stand her ground, and she shook her head.

"I… I cannot stand for it, to see you suffer needlessly for others who don't deserve you," Aoi's voice began to shake. "There must be something I can do. Tell me…"

"Aoi…" Aqua uttered her name. "I am sorry. I know no easy solution to our predicament. You can stay as far as you are comfortable to. I am… I always am in need of someone to confide in."

Aoi still appeared unconvinced, still hurt.

"It's not the best thing, but amidst strangers and mercenaries, your presence was one of the best things I could ask for," Aqua pressed further. "I won't force you to do anything you don't want to. Even if we might have to face your brother, I…"

Aqua didn't want to think of when that day would come. Although not related by blood, Akira was like a brother to her as well. When she and Ema made plans to leave Soltis, she went fully knowing she was forsaking all those who loved and cared for her. Aoi, however, was not prepared. Aqua wanted to leave a second option for her.

They heard the crunch of grass behind them. The others had finally caught up to them. Aqua didn't know how long they had been there.

"If you're really plotting an escape, you'd best be more discreet about it," the object of their ire spoke up behind them. "You must be rather confident you can take us in a fight to be plotting mutiny in broad daylight."

"I don't recall ever asking you to join our conversation," Aoi hissed at him. "I'm only expressing my concern for Aqua's safety, that is all. As her precious friend."

"And you want your dear precious friend to go back to that disgusting paradise?" Spectre jeered at her.

Still reeling from her exchange with Aqua earlier, Aoi flared at him. "What kind of alliance is this, if you intend to speak ill of our home and people?"

"Your home, and your people," Spectre corrected her. "Lady Aqua and Ema here already gave up their citizenship on account of simply being here."

"That's not true," Aoi volleyed back. "My brother works for the military, he will vouch for leniency."

Aqua wanted to stop her, but Aoi was already on the offensive.

"In Soltis, there is no war, no hunger, everyone there treats each other with warmth and respect, unlike yourself."

"Oh, do they now?" Spectre curled his lip. "Are you forgetting the countless beggars at your doorstep, subsisting on mere scraps?"

"Can't be any worse than what you sinners live in," Aoi grumbled and stalked away through the stone arches. Not wanting Aoi to be alone, Aqua hurried after her, prompting the others to follow suit.[1]

* * *

♬ | A Reason to Live by Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsRuJeW88R4) | Spotify

Aqua had expected there would be much more tripping and groping around in pitch darkness, but the path deeper inside the cavern was illuminated by glowing crystals and mushrooms. Not just any mushrooms, but massive, umbrella-sized ones one could build staircases out of. These unusual sights did nothing to prepare Aqua for the massive mushroom houses that began at the edge of the settlement they came across.

"This is the settlement?" Ema noted. "Did we scare them away?"

"Not quite," Spectre pointed out into the far back of the village, where they could spot something bounding to their direction.

Hurrying out to see them was a small creature less than half their size, the hems of their robes dragging across the grass. Aqua waved to the creature in welcome, but their reaction was unexpected.

"Ahhhh!" the creature cried out in alarm and ran away at the sight of them. "Mortals! There are mortals! Lots of them!"

A little heartbroken, Aqua drew her hand back.

"I thought you said the Nu Mou were friendly with men," Aoi shot Spectre an accusatory look. "Why were they beside themselves with fear?"

"They were beside themselves," Spectre wagged a condescending finger at her. "But not with fear."

At his word, they heard a rumbling of feet as a crowd of Nu Mou emerged from their mushroom homes to greet them. Even the one they first saw had returned to see them.

"To have so many mortals in one place!" They exclaimed. "It's more excitement than we can bear!"

They appeared human from far away, but as they came closer, Aqua could see that their faces were flatter, resembling a turtle, almost. On top of that, she spotted clawed feet and a large furry tail peeking out from under their garments. So this was a Nu Mou, Aqua realized. She never expected them to be so… different.

"Greetings, Elder Wyd Aenc," Spectre bowed gracefully. "It has been a while."

"It truly has!" the Nu Mou in question seemed close to tears. "We haven't spoken since your last request to build that cottage of yours! Tell me, has your studies gone well?"

"As much as I would enjoy sharing my findings, I'm afraid time is against us," Spectre apologized courteously. "We had come to borrow the stone scepter of the Nu Mou."

The smiles on the Nu Mou's faces dropped all at once.

"Th-The stone scepter?" Wyd Aenc stammered. "You don't mean to lift the seal over the castle Lyghe Ghiah, are you?!"

The crowd of fae erupted into frantic chatter that made Aqua herself worried that the deal would end poorly.

"Unacceptable! Unthinkable!"

"If the king is set free, none will be safe!"

"What is this mortal thinking?"

"We've lived here since time immemorial!"

"We can't be forced to leave!"

"We're not asking you to leave your homes," Spectre tried to reason with them. "Now if we can calm down and discuss this properly, you will understand how serious we are."

"No, it's you mortals who don't understand," Wyd Aenc shook their head. "Many of us laid down our lives to seal away our king when they were consumed by light. To do as you ask would make light of our sacrifice."

"If you are worried of the birth of another Lightwarden in the wake of the king's defeat, you needn't worry so," Spectre offered. "Contrary to what you may believe, but we are not without strong allies. Strong enough to law low the Lightwarden of Lakeland without succumbing to its influence. Will you not help us do the same for your own kind?"

Wyd Aenc began to stroke their chin in thought, while their fellow Nu Mou began to whisper reassurances all around. After a brief talk amongst themselves, they returned to Spectre, their expressions very grave.

"You have always done right by us, Spectre, so we have reason to believe your claims," they conceded. "Be that as it may, this is not a decision to be made lightly. We require at least a turn of the moon to deliberate…"

"A turn of the moon?" Aqua looked between Wyd Aenc and Spectre. "That's far too long a time to wait."

"That is true," Ema agreed. "The Sol Army would definitely not wait, much less debate with us over this."

Nonetheless, the Nu Mou shook their heads, unwilling to budge on the issue. But Spectre raised a hand to silence all objections. Aqua had sensed that the elven man must have had prepared for this.

"Elder… given all that is at stake, I know I cannot force you to give in to our request," he declared in a commanding tone. "But there are those who would see you continue to suffer, and so I'm afraid I must BESEECH that you hasten your deliberations so that you must FETCH us the scepter as soon as possible."

The words he emphasized seemed to have an effect on Wyd Aenc and the rest of their kind. The elder Nu Mou clutched its head in frustration.

"You… you scoundrel!" Wyd Aenc pouted. "You know full well how much rendering aid to men pleases us! And yet you speak words like 'beseech' and 'fetch' regardless?! This is unfair! Absolutely unfair!"

Aqua blinked in abject surprise. She had heard that the Nu Mou were a special tribe of fae that found great honor in assisting mortals and receiving rewards befitting the deed. At first, she had the impression that the Nu Mou were sages in this regard, but the truth was they weren't any less childish than the pixies, just simply eager to please rather than play.

After the flurry of anger, Wyd Aenc gathered themselves and breathed out a deep sigh.

"Very well, Spectre," they finally agreed. "We promise to give you as swift an answer as we may. But in return, we ask that you stay awhile."

"Yes, that will be most agreeable," Spectre nodded, his smile more smug than ever.

Now that a deal was sealed, the Nu Mou dispersed and went back to their daily tasks. But they kept their eyes trained on them, not out of caution, but eagerness that perhaps one of the rare mortals could bless them with their patronage.

Spectre boldly stepped into their domain, not even looking back to the rest of the party. Assured by the man's confidence, Ema and Aqua followed suit. Aoi, however, was not as easily persuaded to move along. Aqua slowed down and returned back to the girl to ask what had gone amiss.

"The Nu Mou are a very particular kind of fae, so I don't expect them to," Aqua reassured her. "We'll be fine."

For extra measure, she reached out for Aoi's hand, and squeezed gently.

"Come, let us go."

Aoi tore her hand away from Aqua, and walked on ahead, leaving Aqua dumbfounded for a few seconds. But as saddened as she was by the rejection, Aqua could bring herself to blame Aoi for being upset with her.

* * *

1 The Aoi/Miyu/Spectre dynamic was harder than I thought. I had to go further back and use Ysayle and Estinien's conversations as a point of reference. I figured I would try to play up Aoi's self righteous streak which clashes with Spectre's biting bluntness. I haven't gotten a good grasp on who I want Miyu to be, and Ema is just along for the ride trying to get business done. I probably should reach out for feedback on this.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I did end up making Yusaku and Ryoken alts for collecting screenshots to illustrate this fic, which is why you may have noticed some different pictures in previous chapters. Got a lot of screenshots I can't use but didn't want to go to waste. So, I'm dumping all the spare screenshots on a separate Twitter account @datastorm_ffxiv.


	11. lawless ones

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusaku, his fellow hunters, and Revolver continue tackling the dungeon that is Dohn Mheg. Ai accompanies Aqua while running errands for the Nu Mou, and the two struggle to come to terms with Aqua's responsibility, and Ai's memory of an old friend.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow this took less time than last update because we're all stuck inside with little else to do but write and worry about the state of world affairs. Also because I've been sitting on this and the next chapter for the longest time, waiting for my slowpoke ass to fill in all the gaps so far.

♬ | Figments - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8Dw354rOE) | Spotify

Their journey had taken Yusaku and the others out of the submerged woods and into a splendid crystal castle. As fascinating as Voeburtite architecture was, they had little time to appreciate the view. They entered the imposing gates and in the grand foyer, they spotted a glint of silver floating above a pedestal at the top of the staircase.

"There it is!" Takeru couldn't be any more relieved. "The crown!"

They climbed up and indeed, there was the shell crown. It was wrapped in some sort of magic, so Yusaku was already running through all the different ways to undo the enchantment. Takeru, however, wasn't thinking that far ahead. He ran past him so fast, Yusaku couldn't hold him back. And neither could Revolver.

"Homura, wait-"

Takeru made a swipe at the crown, but his hands went clean through it. Aenc Thon's laugh echoed about the foyer, mocking them mercilessly.

"Oh, my, this was a fake!" said the fuath prince. "It appears you will have to stay a little longer in our humble palace!"

On cue, they were beset by a cluster of naiads and undines. Far too many to dispatch in a few strokes.

Yusaku dove behind a nearby pillar and leapt out the other side to flank their enemies and draw them in. He felt his limbs strain from the monsters weighing down on him, but he wasn't so weak to falter from a minor inconvenience. Whatever Ai was doing to keep the aether circulating soundly through his veins, it was working far better than he ever felt.

Just when he was sure he could endure their enmity, one naiad broke off from the mob and flew towards the rest of the party. All because Revolver, the absolute bastard, landed a clean shot in one of its eyes.

With a snarl, Yusaku plucked a small portion of magic from his reserves and threw it at the naiad to lure it back into his range, but Revolver was of another mind. Instead of laying off of the thing and aiming at anything else, he began unloading on it. Now the poor, stray naiad was confused on who to attack. Yusaku was tempted to just let the matter go and have Revolver get himself drowned to learn a lesson.

Thankfully, Takeru had seen this coming, and fell back. With his gauntlets still strapped on, he reached out, grabbed the undine by its legs, and hurled it back in Yusaku's direction. For extra measure, he even took out some of the others with that throw. Afterwards, they made quick work with the rest of their foes, but Yusaku was winded by the end of it. All eyes were on Takeru for what he did earlier.

"Sorry about that," Takeru made a sheepish grin. "I really thought that was the real thing."

"It's all right," Kusanagi patted the boy the shoulder. "Just don't do that next time."

"If there is a next time," Revolver, on the other hand, scolded him. "That was absolutely reckless. You should have waited for Fujiki to assess the risks."

"Pardon me, but you weren't even in sync with us," Takeru snapped. "Who started messing up the formation and not following the rest of us?"

Not one to admit he actually made a mistake, Revolver scoffed indignantly. If they weren't in such a deadly place, Yusaku would have laughed or cursed at him.

"All right, we made a lot of mistakes," Kusanagi deescalated whatever argument was about to launch amongst them. "But we're clearly shorthanded. If the next trials are going to be this difficult, we'll need to slow our pace."

"But more time spent down here is more time for the Sol army to catch up with us," Yusaku pointed out. "We don't have the luxury to slow down."

"Then now is a good time to ask for some assistance from that Ignis of yours," Revolver hissed at him.

Yusaku was forced to agree. He tried to feel for the connection he and Ai shared. In a matter of hours since they began this journey, Yusaku had become far more adept at grasping the other's presence. At this point, if Ai didn't answer, it could not be Yusaku's inexperience anymore.

"Ai!"

No one answered his call. Again.

"It's no use," Yusaku admitted. "My aether hasn't experienced any irregularities, but my words can't seem to reach him. Again."

"By the shadows, I didn't think Ai disliked the fuath this much," said Takeru. "And just when he wanted a chance to be useful."

"Reliable as any Ignis ought to be," Revolver shook his head minutely.

"It just so seems like we're truly on our own," Kusanagi exhaled sharply as he searched his satchel for leftover potions. "Think you can manage another malm, Yusaku?"

Yusaku rolled out a bothersome crick in his shoulder, but his shoulders weighed heavy. It was considerate of Kusanagi to think of his poor constitution, but they were already in too deep into Dohn Mheg to make a retreat now. If he no longer had the strength to maintain the enemy's emnity, there was always…

Yusaku shook off the thought that wandered into his mind. He wasn't about to start relying on Revolver to pick up the slack for him. This wasn't a matter of foolish pride that he didn't want that Drahn having more reasons to gloat to the Crystal Exarch. He just wasn't comfortable with switching roles in the middle of a place so dangerous.

"Well?" Revolver seemed to wait on him to make a decision.

Yusaku glowered at the man's smug smile. It was almost like he was sharing Yusaku's thoughts and waiting for him to concede. Well, if that's how he wanted it, Yusaku wasn't giving him a single, satisfying ilm.

"We must make haste," said Yusaku, stalking past Revolver, sword at the ready. "Before that prince changes his mind about us."

"Are you sure?"

"I'm. Fine."

* * *

♬ | A Reason to Live by Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EsRuJeW88R4) | Spotify

The first thing the Nu Mou offered to do for them was to mend their arms and armor to pristine condition, in exchange for a paltry ten pairs of moss fungus legs. Spectre and Aoi were already running out of the settlement to fetch said legs, although Aqua reckoned they were planning to turn this in to some petty tournament over who could collect the most legs. When Aoi set out to follow them, Ema held her back by the shoulder and shook her head.

"My lady, you are to stay here with the Nu Mou," the rogue instructed her.

"Because I might be a liability?" Aqua asked back in a challenging tone.

"Well, there's that," Ema admitted. "But we need someone to keep watch in case the other half of our party catch up with us. At least keep the faeries company. They're starved for attention."

It seemed like an excuse to ensure she didn't add onto Ema's troubles, but there wasn't time to cause a scene. Ema had valid reason to make her stay put, but Aqua felt that she sometimes overestimated her ward's ability to hold her own in battle. Aqua gave a reluctant, disappointed nod and let her bodyguard go after the other two.

Although she was confined to the settlement, that didn't mean Aqua ran short of errands to do. She spent a good while or so running back and forth among the many huts delivering goods to the residents. One Nu Mou sat her down by a table, insisting they craft her a new staff in addition to the mending services.

Aqua was inclined to turn down the offer, but she removed her staff to look at it. When she had fled Soltis with Ema, they had little luxury to choose whichever weapons they wanted out of the scrap heap in the derelicts. The poor thing was already weathered to begin with, and now it looked like it couldn't take another battle.

"Marn Ose, was it?" Aqua tried to recall their name. "I would be very grateful if you could make me a new staff."

"You will not be disappointed!" the Nu Mou beamed. "I cannot believe I can do service for a mortal once more! In fact, I have several of them ready to be infused with alkahest! Now where did I put them…"

Marn Ose scurried into their mushroom hut and emerged with a bundle of rods as well as a string of vials containing some kind of substance only the finest alchemists could synthesize. Aqua marveled at the mastery demonstrated on each component laid out before her, and her awe was not lost on the artisan.

"See any one you like, mortal?" they asked, eager to please.

"Not yet, but… your handiwork is very impressive," she smiled warmly at them. "I've never seen something so well made. Not outside of Soltis, anyway."

"You are too kind, young mortal!" The Nu Mou grinned back as they rummaged through their box of tools. "I'll have you know, I was once in the service of the knights of Voeburt!"

Aqua knew the faeries were old, but she didn't think they were that old! "But that must have been years ago!"

"Indeed, over a century!" Marn Ose exclaimed, inspecting the contents of one of their vials. "But until you mortals came along, we've had no opportunity to put our skills to use! Can you imagine how overjoyed we are right now?"

"I… I can't imagine," Aqua admitted.

"I do hope the elders agree to assist you all," the artisan commented offhandedly. "Maybe if we get our night sky back, we might be able to do business with mortals again."

"So you support our cause?"

"Of course we do," Marn Ose shrugged. "Most of us would want nothing more than to believe you, but it's the elders who are fretting over your chances."

And Aqua couldn't fault them. When a Lightwarden had gone unrivaled for decades, trusting a merry band of mortals with fanciful claims was difficult.

"Besides," Marn Ose continued. "Maybe it's because some of us can sense something different about you from most mortals."

"Different?"

"Yes, it's hard to put into words. Mayhap we sense no ill will from you? Or…"

Aqua noticed that the artisan stilled, and followed their gaze to the front gates. In the distance, she could make out the recognizable figures of her party, recently returned from all their errands.

"Ah! The fungus legs!" Marn Ose clapped their hands in delight. "Just enough to replenish my wares! Might you go receive them for me?"

"Of course," Aqua rose from her seat.

"Remember, only five pairs!"

Aqua raced down to the foot of the tree roots where the other three stopped to greet her again. Spectre made some effort to appear friendly, while Aoi was quietly sulking behind him and Ema. Aqua couldn't imagine what kind of torment the elf from Hanoi put her through, but she made sure to remember to comfort her later when they could speak alone.

"We're back," Ema chirped. "And we didn't run into any trouble!"

From the way Aoi looked even more agitated than usual, Aqua doubted that was the case. "No trouble, you say?"

"She is simply displeased that I collected more legs than she," Spectre waved off her concerns. "Anyways, let us put them all together to bring to the Nu Mou who asked for these."

He laid the legs down on the grass before the Nu Mou. Aoi dumped her share of the legs unceremoniously onto his, absolutely relieved she no longer had to carry the revolting things. Ema tossed in her catch as well. Aqua didn't take long to inspect the pile of legs to realize that they brought more than Marn Ose requested.

"Wait," she interjected, and hurried down to separate the excess pairs.

"Aqua, what are you doing?" Aoi gasped in alarm.

"The artisan only asked for five pairs," Aqua told them. "They'll be terribly upset if they receive more than that!"

"Exactly to the letter?" Ema raised an eyebrow. "Why not more for safekeeping?"

"It's bad manners," Aqua explained, recalling what little written accounts of the Nu Mou she had come across in Soltis's libraries. "Too little, and you belittle their abilities, and too many, you bring their integrity to question."

"Is that so?" Ema didn't pretend to make sense of it, but she took Aqua's word. "Such picky folk they are."

"Not unlike a spoiled child," Spectre spoke pointedly, making Aoi glare at him. "But good of my lady to notice this discrepancy. Had we not foreseen this sooner, the Nu Mou would most certainly tear our armor to shreds."

Aqua nodded in reluctant agreement. They couldn't afford to be rendered useless at this point of their quest. Save for Spectre, all of them had only but the clothes on their back.

She gathered the exact amount of legs and brought them upstairs to Marn Ose, who then sorted through the legs with an approving hum.

"Perfect, and in pristine condition!" The artisan exclaimed. "Should be enough to last me through one winter! Do tell your friends downstairs that they are always welcome to come to me for repairs!"

"You are too kind, Marn Ose."

"And we are both better off that way," Marn Ose grinned back. "Ah, and I have finished your new staff! Consider it complimentary for what you have done for me!"

With loving hands, the Nu Mou bestowed the staff unto her, and Aqua might have spent longer than necessary taking in all the intricate details of jeweled lilies fixed so delicately to the head.

"I must thank you again," Aqua thanked them again, and after another back and forth, she eventually saw her way out to the party waiting outside. True to form, they were pleased to hear they could have their equipment repaired, but most of the excitement was about her new staff. Ema was allowed to hold it to test the weight and build for herself.

"I’m tempted to see if I should ask them to craft a new pair of knives for me," she mused. "But I'm rather partial to the ones I already own, so I suppose not…"

Aqua took the staff back and was surprised herself by how light it was compared to her previous staff. She didn't know what kind of alkahest the artisan possessed to make such a powerful weapon that only weighed like a twig, but she was sure she would never need to buy another one again.

"It's beautiful," Aoi noted curtly. "The lilies suit you."

Aqua flushed with embarrassment, suddenly reminded of the late nights they spent in her quarters tangled under all the layers of their gowns pulled from her wardrobe. Some habits never changed.

"They sure did spoil you," Spectre teased her. "Although it's to be expected. I'm not surprised the Nu Mou would take very well to a Drahn."

"And why is that?" Aoi asked.

"The kingdom of Voeburt was born out of an alliance between the Drahn and Galdjent," Spectre explained. "In fact, the last of the royal family happened to be Drahn, so many of the surviving Nu Mou would still remember serving the Drahn."

"Well, Aqua certainly does play the part of a princess," Ema gave the girl a light nudge. "Does that make Aoi her knight in shining armor?"

"If she asks me to," Aoi didn't skip a beat in answering, and Aqua looked away to detach herself from the conversation. As much as the idea of having noble Voeburtite blood was exciting, Aqua was quietly glad that perhaps the kingdom was no more. She couldn't imagine how exhausting royal court politics could turn out to be. The burden of the Oracle was already enough for her.

"Mortals," One Nu Mou asked them. "Would you care for doing another favor for us?"

"More chores?" Aoi complained under her breath. "What do you require?"

They were then saddled with more requests for supplies, deliveries, and rituals. Aqua wondered why these new quests weren't issued earlier the first time her friends (and Spectre) had gone outside. She suspected the faeries were deliberately spacing these tasks apart to either stall for time or make the most time they could with mortals.

"We'll be back," Ema waved back at Aqua as they left the cave again. When Aqua could no longer see them from behind the bend, she turned back to the village again with a heavy sigh.

Now that she knew the area better, Aqua burned through the next round of errands in a matter of minutes. Now she found herself tending to an idle fire, watching the embers leap off the coals with great disinterest. She heard a rustle of grass behind her and assumed it was one of the Nu Mou until she heard a familiar voice humming.

She looked around and recognized the black and purple tail whipping about, and the newcomer, too, came to a stop. Both of them didn't move for a good few seconds, mostly because Aqua wasn't sure if her eyes were failing her. Ai was unperturbed by the unwelcome pause.

"What's wrong?"

"Ai," Aqua asked slowly. "Shouldn't you be with... The others?"

"Our little warrior of darkness can do just fine without me whispering in his ear all the time," Ai reassured her. "No need to be concerned about them."

Aqua couldn't tell if Ai had that much blind faith in the others, or if he was just speaking in platitudes for her sake.

"Well, you're all by yourself," Ai didn't let her dwell on that thought for long. "Where'd the others go?"

"I was ordered to stay here," Aqua said as she gave the crackling fire a dispirited poke. "Until the Nu Mou here reach a decision to give us the scepter."

"But that's terrible!" Ai gasped in horror. "If anyone told me to do that, I'd never sit still!"

At least there was one sympathizer in this entire party.

They were cut short when a Nu Mou, Wyd Lad, she remembered, came scurrying out near the front gate in search of someone. They turned and saw both Aqua and Ai standing by, but they didn't appear any more relieved.

"Where did the other mortals go?"

"They left not long ago," Aqua answered. "Why?"

"I… some lawless ones stole my precious invisible ink, and I need it for my arcane wares."

"Lawless ones?" Aqua had never heard of such fae before.

"Nu Mou who do not follow the code of helping mortals," Ai whispered in her ear. "They instead choose to make nuisances of themselves than work."

"… Then they set upon me and robbed me of my possessions, the ink included!" The Nu Mou had been complaining through Ai's explanation. "I had just about given up on getting my ink back from the villains until you mortals came along, but then I forgot!"

"I'm still here," Aqua suggested at the first opportunity. "How about I fulfill your request? Consider it my patronage, if you will."

Ema had hold her to stay behind, but what they didn't know wouldn't hurt them. Besides, Ai seemed like plenty enough help. She could use a ghost calling out attacks from over her shoulder.

"My deepest thanks!" Wyd Lad eyes shined ever more brightly. "Their lair is down south in Father Collard's Chambers."

Aqua listened to the faerie's directions, from the exact route to the lair to the detailed description of what the ink vials looked like. So all she had to do was sneak in, steal the ink back, and return them to Wyd Lad here. That seemed simple enough.

"Confident you can go by yourself?" Ai asked her at the settlement's gate.

"Contrary to belief, I can manage just fine on my own," Aqua reasoned. "My... Mother.... She taught me a great many things."

"Your mother, huh…" Ai trailed off, but was tactful not to press further unless prompted to.

After making sure the others had not yet returned, Aqua and Ai took the chance to leave Pla Enni. They strolled out of the cave and up the grassy slopes where the looming presence of the castle of Lyhe Ghiah lorded over them from its island in the middle of the lake.

Fighting was easy, and Aqua had her lessons in the clerical arts to thank for this level of competence. Some of the stray wildlife did take an interest to them, but Aqua defended herself with relative ease, enjoying the springiness that her new staff afforded her. She made a note to thank Marn Orse later when she returned to Pla Enni.

They were well past the castle to series of vertical cliffs that closely resembled the ones that opened the path to Pla Enni. Right at the base of the cliff was a hole in the side, also like Pla Enni's. Aqua supposed that even though these "lawless ones" denounced their more diligent counterparts, they didn't divest themselves of everything that defined their kind.

"This is definitely Father Collard's Chambers, all right," Ai nodded in the direction of the cavern entrance. "Just took a peek inside, and there's loads of Nu Mou milling about. You sure about doing this?"

"I will be fine," Aqua reassured him with a smile. "No need to worry."

She muttered a small incantation and with a few hand gestures and a steep change in her breathing, Aqua rendered herself invisible. Ai gave a low, impressed whistle.

"Is this something your mother taught you, too?"

"No," Aqua shook her head, even though Ai wasn't likely to see her do so. "Ema taught me this."

All the Aquas before her had been proficient in combat, given that they historically fought for the Sol army, but by the time she was found, Soltis no longer had need for her to fight. Thus, all her "fighting lessons" were little more than petty concessions to keep her occupied and relatively happy in captivity.

Ema was one of the few rare mentors who took Aqua's desire to learn seriously, but it didn't take long for Aoi's brother Akira to gain wind of this and keep their interactions minimal and away from training grounds. Suppressing one's presence was one of the only things Aqua was able to learn from the rogue and properly master back in Soltis. Now that she was no longer under the scrutiny of Soltis, she had found far more time to learn from Ema, and more opportunities to use what little skills she did practice.

"I'll finish this quickly and quietly," she declared, mostly to herself, and snuck inside.

* * *

♬ | Thicker than a Knife's Blade - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0YMmRuFffo) |  [ Spotify ](https://open.spotify.com/track/2Je1Qj9G135hO9HjhbG2d0?si=C-iTmhL2QIO36-9Jt-3N9Q)

All had gone fairly well, right until the end, when she bumped into one of the lawless ones coming back into the chambers. Without a second to spare, she cast a spell from her newly forged staff to take them out before they could run to warn the others. Then she ran, not even once looking back.

Once they were at a safe distance away, Aqua took one moment to check that the vials of ink she stole back from the rogue Nu Mou were still intact. Ai, meanwhile, did not wait to launch into festivities.

"Wow, that was really good!" Ai praised her. "You really haven't changed!"

"Haven't changed?" Aqua parroted his words, confused.

"Always cool and collected, the most graceful of our merry band!" Ai enthused. "There's no doubt that you were the leader whenever Lightning wasn't able to! Flame and I didn't jive well with Lightning's way of things compared to Windy."

She didn't know any of the names he was listing, but she nodded and pretended to know who they were. Ai would probably tell more stories about them in due time.

Of course, I happen to fashion myself as the right-hand man!"

"My right hand?" Aqua raised an eyebrow. "Then who was that Earth you mentioned earlier?"

"Earth was… er… someone incredibly dear to us, to you most of all," he said as he avoided her gaze. "The two of you were most fortunate to have had each other, after all that happened."

The way Ai wanted to dance around the subject made Aqua just a little curious, and she had a hunch about what the secret was.

"So, lovers, then?"

Ai jumped at the mention of the word, and he turned into a complete babbling mess trying to laugh off his reaction. Ah, so he did have some investment here in not telling her about this very fact.

"There's no need to hide such things from me," Aqua couldn't hold back a snicker. "Not when you have no chance of reaping the benefits of a rival out of the picture."

"Ah, not very heroic of me, was it?"

Considering how he was ditching responsibility in favor of her company, and that no one in the Hanoi Guard or the hunters gave him any respect, Aqua would inclined to say no.

"I appreciate the confidence," Ai said flatly.

"I didn't even say anything, Ai."

"But I know that look when I see it," Ai contended. "When you want to say something mean, but you don't because you'd rather not hurt my feelings."

Aqua had the notion that he was very used to such an expression, considering what little she know about his relationship history.

"Ahh, this is embarrassing," Ai hid his face behind his hands. "Although Earth was worse than me at sweet talk, I really am doing a piss poor job right now."

"We don't have to talk about the past," Aqua suggested. She could do without all the comparisons that everyone in her life had made about her.

"But… I can't just do that," Ai's smile began to waver. "I'm sorry, I know it's entirely wrong of me to keep speaking to you as if you were her. But…"

At least he had the courtesy to apologize to her. Most of the free citizens of Soltis couldn't be bothered to tell the difference or recognize her own person.

"I know… my Aqua had her reasons and troubles, yet I'm just not sure what she intended for me to do," Ai continued. "Was I meant to tell you something? Bring you to someone? Or somewhere?"

That was a question Aqua herself wanted to know about herself. The only way she understood the importance of her duty was through the many accounts of her predecessors and her nebulous visions of the past and future. Aqua was on Ai's side for this one, and she was unsure whether to feel sorry or air her grievances at her original incarnation for not having prepared for this crisis well enough.

"I can feel the answer at the edge of my mind, just out of reach," Ai's voice fell to a whisper. "Oh Aqua… Earth should have been the one to live on, to be with you and guide you. Not I."

"Would you have preferred it if I really was your Blue Angel? Your Aqua?" She asked. It was a difficult question to ask that she likely already knew the answer to, but she was letting her curiosity get the better of her.

All the bravado drained from Ai, and for once, Aqua could feel she was seeing a part of his true self: a tired remnant of a man. He shifted uncomfortably in place. "Things would… certainly have turned out differently if she were here to answer things for me..."

Ai wrung his hands, and Aqua was starting to see right through him. The sudden stress of this discussion must be causing him trouble to even manifest. Just as she was about to tell him, the Ignis caught himself and tucked his arms in at the sides.

"I'm very sorry to have brought all that up, Aqua," He promised fervently. "I won't do that again."

"Ai…" Was all Aqua could utter when things turned for the worse.

A ringing sound filled her ears, and her head exploded in pain. This was nothing compared to her time in the Crystal Tower, shadows forbid she remember, but she shut her eyes tight as if that would block out the pain.

Clutching at her head, she could barely hear Ai call out for her, only the otherworldly cries of something, someone, living in the castle they needed entry to.

_Why… Why do you imprison us?_

Aqua envisioned a figure draped in the finest silks, wings glistening even in darkness. They seemed lost, floating in nothing, eyes looking elsewhere. She noted a silver crown atop their silvery head. Was this a vision of the faerie king Titania?

"Aqua!" She could hear Ai's voice through the fog. "Can you hear me?"

Aqua felt her legs give out from under her, and she collapsed on the mossy ground. Still shaking like a leaf, she struggled to wrap her arms over her sides to calm down. She had seen visions of the worst kind before, but not to this degree of horror.

"Aqua?"

"I… I can hear you…" She ground out. "I just… I need…"

Ai likely could do nothing to help her up, but he understood that he needed to play the calmer one.

"Wait right there," he instructed her. "I'll get help, all right?"

Aqua nodded furiously, and she could no longer sense Ai's presence anymore.

_Such boredom… Such tedium we have suffered… It is unfair… Simply unfair…_

Only now did the faerie stop wandering and stared straight at Aqua, deep into her soul. Aqua wanted to look away, but no matter how hard she shielded her mind, the vision continued to force her to look at the king's sallow, withered face.

_Is that a soul I spy…? Someone who can see me…? Come… come play with us…_

With a sweep of their spindly silks, the faerie king bounded away back into the shadows, and Aqua was blinded by sky's light. Catching her breath, she shut her eyes again. She hoped this was the end of it. She dearly hoped so…

"Aqua!"

Just as her name was called, Aqua was pulled back to reality and a pair of hands holding her firmly by the shoulders. She recognized Aoi's dyed blue hair, and clothes, and shook her head to fight off the lingering dizziness.

"Aoi?" She asked, still dazed. "What are you doing here?"

"That ghost found us on the way back and said you were out here," Aoi informed her. So Ai did all this for her? Aqua looked around, and couldn't see Ai anywhere, although she supposed that Ai was keeping his distance once again, likely out of fear that his presence would do more harm than help.

"I'm sorry, but I got the ink that one Nu Mou was asking for," Aqua held up the small bottle for Aoi to see, but Aoi didn't look at it for one second. Instead, she stood back up and began to help Aqua up.

"Nothing broken?"

"I don't believe so."

"Then you don't need me to carry you back?"

"Maybe not," Aqua smiled back apologetically.

"Suit yourself," Aoi shrugged and walked on ahead of her. "Let's just walk back. But if anything comes at us, you best hang back."

Aqua half expected a scolding from her friend about doing things on her own. Which... would honestly be so unbefitting of Aoi, the lone wolf she was. But Aoi didn't speak on the way back until Aqua herself summoned the courage to break the silence.

"Aoi…" Aqua muttered under her breath, hoping that her friend didn't hear her, but when Aoi came to a halt, it became clear that she did. "Why?"

"You needed my help." And she didn't listen to Ema, like always, Aoi probably wanted to add.

"Aren't you… upset with me?"

"Of course I'm still upset!" Aoi spun around to face her. "But… well, you know. Can't leave you out here to die and all."

She didn't really want to repeat herself again, and Aqua was fine with that. Ema was right on the gil about Aoi being her knight.

"Very cute," she let one of her quips slip, and Aoi stopped short of breathing.

"C-Cute?!"

Aoi gave her a withering look, but after one deep sigh, Aqua could spot a small smile. Probably the first time she's done it since they reunited.

"Come on, let us leave this light," she turned around and continued walking. "Still… it's nice to see you acting like yourself for once."

* * *

"Ah, you made it back safely!" Wyd Lad lightened up when they rejoined them. "We were worried what had become of you when we heard our king speak! Oh… this has been a very terrible day…"

Aqua had been just about done trying to forget that the faerie king's face flashing in her mind.

"They must have sensed my presence… and called out to me," she said, drawing the attention of both Nu Mou and mortals, but for very different reasons.

"You had the vision as well?" Wyd Lad massaged their temples to ease their stress. "Woe is us…"

"I never heard of a sin eater being able to communicate," Spectre asked. "Usually they lose all semblance of sentience."

"That was what we believed, too, until the king themselves turned into an eater," Wyd Lad sighed. "Despite their present state, the king has retained some of their instincts, most primarily their desire for freedom and play."

"That desire must be very strong to be able to invade the consciousness of ones such as yourself and the Oracle," Spectre mused. "Interesting…"

"In any case," Ema brought them back to the subject at hand. "You were about to share the conclusion of your deliberations."

So they had finally decided whether or not to give the scepter to them? Aqua wondered just how long they had been in this settlement.

"Well, we've accounted for your excellent patronage to our people," Wyd Lad explained. "And so we've come to a decision."

"And?"

"We… must concede that we will never possess the means to release our fallen monarch from the castle nor from their torment," Wyd Lad continued. "In light of this, we have decided to entrust their face to you."

The crowd of Nu Mou parted for one of them to step forward with a silver rod encrusted with enough jewels to blind a man. They presented the scepter to the nearest person in the party, namely Aqua.

"Here is the stone scepter of the Nu Mou," Wyd Lad instructed her. "Please, take it."

With great care not to accidentally drop it, Aqua picked up the scepter from the velvet cushion they brought it in with. No doubt, she would likely give the relic to Kusanagi later for safekeeping, but seeing as no one had a bag large enough to carry it, she decided that she would hold onto it until they rendezvous with the others.

"This makes three relics, if we're also counting the one that Kusanagi and his friends are after," Ema noted. "Where was the next one again?"

"The crystal slippers are held in the amaro's safekeeping at their settlement, Wokeldorf," Spectre answered for her. "We will have to seek an audience with them as soon as we can."

"You're talking about amaros, are you?" Aoi asked, now genuinely curious. "They can talk?"

"Yes, unlike the ones you've encountered before," the elf said. "They are most certainly capable of speech and negotiation."

"Talking amaros…" Aoi drifted into her own thoughts, and Aqua coughed discreetly to hide a giggle. Her friend always loved to ride the fluffy creatures about the city whenever they had an opportunity. To learn that they were able to speak might just be a highlight for her.

"Oh, must you go so soon?" Wyd Lad began to whine. "If the king proves too much of a challenge, we are always here to make you feel… much at home."

"Unfortunately, that is the way of things," Spectre bowed courteously. "We must see that we follow through on our duty to the very end."

Disappointed but not willing to insist against someone like Spectre, the Nu Mou shook their heads and let them go. But, of course, not before insisting they repair all their equipment and weapons to perfect condition again. When they made their way out of the cavern for the final time, Aqua made a conscious effort not to look back. She was going to miss these mushroom topped huts and friendly craftsmen. [1]

* * *

♬ | Figments - Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Am8Dw354rOE) | Spotify

"Fujiki! Duck!"

Yusaku took Revolver's cue to dive sideways, just as a beam ripped through what was an oversized figure of the fuath prince, Aenc Thon. The attack went through right where his head would have been. It looked and sounded painful, but honestly, this was poetic justice for the ridiculous musical interlude Aenc Thon put them through. Finally brought to his knees, the fuath lord dissolved away in a stream of bubbles.

"Are they dead?" Takeru approached the spot where their opponent was standing just now. "I hope we didn't just slaughter their ruler."

"Certainly not," Revolver told him. "The fuath don't die that easily. Besides, we were fighting an illusion this entire time."

"Yeah, but it was so real…"

They looked up back at the altar where the real shell crown was enshrined in the same manner as the fake one. Nothing stood in their way now.

"So… do we just take it?" Takeru asked, not keen on a repeat of the first time they saw a floating crown in this castle.

"Perhaps we should wait on permission before we go and grab the thing," Kusanagi suggested, and Yusaku hummed in agreement. Better to stay in their good graces than be in too much of a hurry.

"Haha! Well fought! Well fought!"

Many pairs of eyes peeked out from the depths of the pool below. Yusaku assumed they were more creatures to fight, but they never sprang out to meet them, only echoing their praises for their performance.

"Well, you aren't one to hold back, are you?" He heard Aenc Thon's voice again. "But I would have it no other way! Seldom have I enjoyed such sport!"

Yusaku looked behind them. Sure enough, the fuath lord didn't die from their encounter, but he was back to his tiny, frog-like form. It was, dare he say it, rather adorable.

"Well, we've satisfied your demands," Revolver reminded the prince. "Will you satisfy ours?"

"Of course!" Aenc Thon waved his little cane and the magic veil that protected the relic was lifted. "There is the relic you seek! All yours for the taking."

Closest to the stairs, Takeru walked up to the altar and received the shell crown. On the way down, he threw the relic over to Kusanagi, who didn't expect at all to catch anything. The relic bounced off his unsuspecting hands, and nearly met the floor if not for Yusaku diving for it. The small sound of scraping metal elicited an alarmed gasp from its keeper.

"Do take care not to break it!" the fuath scolded them. "Such a treasure isn't something that can be easily repaired, you know!"

"Oh," Takeru said dumbly. "I'll… be careful about that."

Sighing, Yusaku got up and handed the relic off to Kusanagi, who then placed it into the satchel hanging off his shoulder. The sound of the crown grinding against metal and glass was concerning, but Yusaku was sure the thing wasn't that fragile. Otherwise why would anyone want to wear it?

"We thank you for your generosity," Revolver bowed graciously to the fuath king. "Now if you'll excuse us, we'll see our way out."

"Of course," Aenc Thon bowed in return. "But if you might be so kind, we would like for one of you to stay awhile."

Revolver frowned. "Who?"

"You," the fuath directed his cane not at Revolver himself, but at Yusaku.

"Me?" He uttered.

"Yes, you!" Aenc Thon nodded eagerly. "You, my friend, were mighty indeed, and pleasing to the eye, besides..."

This was not part of the deal.

"You want Yusaku to stay?" Kusanagi asked, thoroughly confused by this development. Yusaku himself was wary of what kind of prank they would pull on him. He should have seen this coming ever since he met Roboppy again.

The spectators, meanwhile, chattered in agreement.

"Ooh! I wish to see more of him! More!"

"I could watch him forever!"

"I have an idea! How about we make him one of us?"

"Yes! One of us!"

"One of us!" The audience chanted all around them. "One of us! One of us!"

The suggestion drained all the color Yusaku had left in his face, but the delighted chorus only grew stronger. Yusaku looked to Takeru and Kusanagi, who looked just as lost as he was and as ready to run at a moment's notice. He couldn't tell what Revolver was feeling under his visor, but his rigid posture spoke volumes. No one was prepared he was for the fae taking such a liking to Yusaku. They definitely needed to leave. Right now.

"What a delightful idea!" Aenc Thon's ever increasing smile did not help the situation. "Your party may have the crown, but in exchange… we will have you!"

With a flick of a finger, the fuath lord summoned a massive torrent of water into the chamber, taking Yusaku with it. The last thing Yusaku heard before getting completely swept away were his companions' alarmed cries.

As he struggled to keep his head above water, he could feel the flood change course to throw him off and finally drown him as intended. Yusaku held his breath for as long as he could, but the water rammed him into every conceivable bend on the way out. He didn't even realize how far he had gone until his feet got stuck in a tangle of roots. The current flung Yusaku into yet another wall did one of the buckles on his sword come loose and hit right against his spine. He gasped from the shock, but his lungs' screams for air were answered with only more water.

The pain had become too much to bear, and Yusaku could no longer fight the darkness creeping into his consciousness.

* * *

1 Once again, another really difficult scene to write, mostly because I didn't expect this chapter needed to happen. Hopefully this doesn't ruin the pacing, but I have a bad habit of just adding more and more things into a story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyways, stay tuned for next chapter: Datastorm Lifeguard AU.


	12. memento of a friend

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The fuath try to drown Yusaku, bringing back unwelcome memories of his experience of the Lost Incident. Revolver rescues Yusaku and they have their first actual polite conversation. Ai checks in on them but ends up reminiscing about the place Il Mheg used to be. They catch up with the others in Wokeldorf and meet the amaros' leader who has a connection to Ai somehow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now for some bona fide DSS fluff/angst.
> 
> Content warning for references to child torture because Kiyoshi Kogami is a really awful person.

♬ | The Coil Tightens by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOI4RF681IU) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/7lNFatr05TyjGvUPNXYdhn?si=fS1NUCbqRvin-skfISdy8A)

_Out by the Source, the fishermen were hard pressed for a good catch. Since the Flood took out both men and animals alike, many of them had to stray far from their homes to even get anything worth selling or eating. Save for a few elders who stayed behind to keep watch on the children, supervision in Dampsole was hard to come by._

_Yusaku was by himself up at the ruins nearby, rummaging through the endless rocks and portions of destroyed buildings that was once sprawling town. He had never really needed the elders' warnings to stay away from this place in case of sin eaters. The past times he's visited here, not a single one had jumped out to eat him. If they did show up, he swore to himself he'd kick and scratch at their eyes._

_He caught his eye on a glint of metal at the bottom of the hole from which he was digging and went all in. He ignored the sting from the cuts and scrapes forming on his hands as he pawed at the rubble. Maybe this time, he could find real, actual treasure, to sell or keep for himself, he wasn't deciding just yet._

_Soon, Yusaku had an absurdly large petalite stone in his hands. He marveled at how its cut was preserved after all these years. It was far too beautiful to be simply sold at the soldiers' barracks at the Ostall Imperative. Even if it couldn't be worn just yet, Yusaku indulged in the idea that maybe he would grow old enough to have this laid into some sort of jewelry, as a gift to someone._

_"Wooooow," someone spoke over his shoulder. "That's really shiny."_

_Yusaku spun around and came to face with a boy not much older than himself, eyes dazzling silver and hair a wicked white. His dark Drahn horns framed his face like the scales growing along his jaw. He could have mistaken this boy for a sin eater by virtue of his hair alone, but he wasn't deathly pale enough to be one, quite the opposite, actually._

_The boy reached out to him, and Yusaku had a glimpse of a mark on the back of his hand, a series of red triangles arranged to form a greater one. He didn't think to ask about it because he felt that hand tug at his fingers trying to get at the stone he so painstakingly scavenged for. In defense, Yusaku tore his hands away and created some distance between him and the boy, ignoring the way his face fell at the rejection._

_"Who are you?" He demanded, putting his hands behind his back to hide the ring._

_"I live in the Tower!" the child said, and Yusaku instantly forgot to be cautious of him. The Tower was more interesting._

_"You do?"_

_The stranger pouted at his disbelief. "I'm not lying, if that's what you're thinking."_

_"No one really comes out here from the Crystarium," Yusaku said as an excuse. "This village here's too far and not important."_

_"No one?"_

_He shook his head, and that had the other boy thinking._

_"Would you like to come visit me then? I can take you there."_

_Yusaku's heart skipped a beat. "To the Tower?"_

_"Yeah, we can go right now!" The boy said. "I came here with someone, and we can bring you along!"_

_The offer was tempting. Yusaku didn't have much to lose here, aside from a small cot in the nearby shack designed to house many orphans like himself. He had seen the older children set out of Dampsole in search of a better life and purpose at the Crystarium in the far end of Lakeland. It could never be too early for Yusaku to start._

_"I'd like to see it," Yusaku said after a pause, and the stranger was satisfied by his answer._

_"Okay, but there are three things you must do," The stranger held out his hand expectantly. Strange, Yusaku thought, to have a list of demands. "First, you must promise to not tell anyone about me."_

_That was easy. Yusaku was good at keeping secrets. He nodded in agreement._

_"Second, you must give me what you're hiding."_

_Yusaku hesitated to do as he was asked, but a pretty stone wasn't anything compared to an offer to leave this place. It wasn't every day a little boy like himself was offered a chance to go see that Crystal Tower, maybe even live there. He dropped the jewel in the boy's hands, earning a pleased grin from the Drahn boy._

_"There we go," The boy beamed in delight and pocketed the jewel. He extended a hand out to him again. "And lastly, we're holding hands all the way down."_

_"Why?"_

_"So we don't slip and fall, of course."_

_Yusaku didn't buy it. "But if I fall, you'll fall with me."_

_"Well," Caught in on his lie, the boy laughed. "Oh, all right, I just wanted you to hold my hand."_

_At least he ended up coming clean in the end. Yusaku quickly got up to his feet and took the boy's hand, and followed him out around the corner. He didn't remember who had received them at the carriage that would take them to the tower, but he remembered the excitement of being offered something to drink..._

_And oh, what a terrible lie that all was._

_"Hey, you."_

_Next thing he knew, Yusaku found himself in the glorious crystal blue chambers, just like he had dreamed of, just like boy had promised him. He didn't have time to react when he felt a wave of pain coursing through his entire body. A cracking sensation inside of him started in his heart and splintered into the rest of his body. He screamed._

_"Think of three things."_

_Yusaku cried out and curled on the floor, not ready for the next wave that threatened to break him. Then another, more painful than the last. And another. When his small body could no longer handle the abuse, the boy simply lay there and let oblivion take him. Then a crystal encrusted hand would lift him by the head then drown him in a bright, immaterial sea of light. That hand, too, bore the familiar triangular, red mark._

_"Three things to live."_

_Some days, Yusaku woke up and saw a meager tray of food set on the floor next to him. His stomach would growl at his hesitation to even accept such a meal. But once his urge to survive kicked in, Yusaku forgot all manners and ate as greedily as he could. He didn't feel so much as a person anymore in his desperation, only an animal, a thing. Who knew when he could get another meal such as this?_

_"Three things to fight the enemy."_

_On other days he woke up in the chamber disoriented but with a dulling pain in his chest. Yusaku would look down his garments and find suspicious bandages covering up what were scars that developed while he was out cold. The surprise wounds only made matters worse when his captors would strike him again with the same stream of corrupted aether without a second thought to his injuries. He was too young to curse them, but he would if he knew any back then._

_"Three things to go home."_

_There came a point in time when something finally broke inside of Yusaku, and he just couldn't bring himself to get up anymore. But the voice whose words rang clear throughout the chamber kept Yusaku company. That very voice served as a reminder that he wasn't the only one suffering._

_Yusaku reckoned that boy who led him to this tower was somewhere, trapped like he was. He didn't know the truth, because no one told him, and he never met that boy again afterwards, but he wanted to believe that this voice was his, saving him._

"Hey!"

_Yusaku wanted to reply to the voice, but his head was filled once more with that poisonous Light. He let out a weak whimper, sensing he was on his last legs. Perhaps the afterlife might not be so bad._

_He ducked down against the stone floor but found an endless expanse of water. Frantic, Yusaku looked up and saw streams of water pouring down from the open cracks in the crystal chamber. He was about to drown._

"Fujiki!"

_Seconds passed, and the water had risen well above his head. Yusaku made the grave mistake of letting out all the air left in his lungs into nothing. A pair of arms gathered at his waist and began to pull him upwards._

_"Three things," was the last he heard of that voice before light was all he could see._

* * *

♬ | Tranquility by Nobuo Uematsu | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t7rQLTMAYDI) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/3q5gLNjTaftvfD3XCoym7N?si=vh9LUVZ2SYSTnldw3gS4VQ)

They broke out of the lake's surface, greedily swallowing the air and coughing on the water that splashed into their faces. Yusaku struggled to tread on the water beneath him, but Revolver was already paddling to the nearest stretch of land, taking Yusaku along with him.

Both of them grabbed a bundle of cattails and hauled themselves onto shore. The sheer act of propping himself up out of the water drained Yusaku of any strength he had left in his entire body. Revolver was forced to turn around to assist him again, hoisting him by the arms and pulling him out.

Without any help on Yusaku's end, Revolver dragged him across the bed of flowers. They only got as far as a good yalm away from the lakeside before Revolver dropped him like a sack of potatoes and collapsed onto his own back, chest heaving. Yusaku curled into the ground in the hopes that his small body would stop shivering now that the wind was hitting their drenched bodies.

"Fujiki," Revolver struggled between breaths. "Did you... mean... to stay down there... until... you drowned?"

Why, yes, Yusaku had fully intended on dying in the middle of a lake with a full blown headache from some murderous fae.

"Hey," He felt a hand grab him by the shoulder and roll him into his back. "Are you even conscious?"

The hand forced him to budge, but Yusaku resisted. He hugged his knees to his chest and fought back a whimper when another fit of coughing wracked his body. The lapse in memory he had experienced in the midst of drowning still burned painfully in the front of his mind, and he was doing everything he could to calm down.

"You need to sit up-"

"Of course-" Yusaku ground out, but his coughing fit dampened the bite of his words. The lake water hadn't quite left him yet. "Can't have you… losing your secret… weapon, now can you?"

He heard the man sigh, whether out of relief or exasperation, he wasn't quite sure. He didn't want to think about that.

"Do you really think that ill of me?"

Yusaku was tempted to say yes, but he was letting his irrational, vindictive self get the better of him.

"I'll give you three reasons that I might persuade you to think otherwise," Revolver said. "First is as you have assumed: I am concerned for you because of how critical you are for our mission.

"Second, despite all that I just said, you are also my traveling companion. It would be poor manners to leave you to fend for yourself.

"And lastly, I have not forgotten what you said to me days ago," Revolver finished. "I promised to pay you and your friends enough to no longer require the Crystarium's assistance, and I'd rather you be alive and breathing when that day happens."

"Oh…"

"Do you understand now?"

"I heard you well enough," Yusaku snapped back. Revolver wasn't the one out here with a terrible headache after a near death experience, now, was he?

"Good," Revolver huffed. "I'd rather we clear up such misunderstandings before they get in the way of our mission later on."

The last point struck a chord in Yusaku, mostly because he didn't expect the man to remember such a small thing. Yusaku never found it important to remember what insults he had lobbied at the man, so he didn't even think about that when Revolver proposed the three million gil reward. Nonetheless, this was remarkably considerate… kind, even.

"Thanks," Yusaku said loud enough for Revolver to hear. He fully expected something scathing in return, but instead he got nothing. Revolver must have been too winded to talk.

Amidst the pounding in his head, Yusaku remembered that Takeru and Kusanagi weren't there with them. He knew Takeru and Kusanagi far better than anyone in this party combined, and he also knew just how directionally challenged Takeru when left unattended.

"We have to find-" He spoke before launching into another coughing fit. "Find the others. Soon."

"They can wait," Revolver groaned. "Give us a few minutes…"

Yusaku rolled over across the flowerbed to look at him. Even though he was drenched to the bone, Revolver hadn't removed his mask. Either he possessed an admirable level of dedication to his appearance, or that mask was sealed so tightly to his face that removing it would be far more uncomfortable than keeping it on.

"Are you really cer-"

"I've already thought of our next steps," Revolver cut him off. "First, we'll figure out where we are once we gather our bearings. Second, we'll head north to Wokeldorf, and third, if the others haven't reached the area, we'll begin negotiations with their elders."

There he went again with those "three things." It was starting to bother Yusaku now that he spend more time in the man's presence than usual.

"Three things," Yusaku watched Revolver's chest skip a breath. "Did you learn that from the Crystal Exarch, too?"

Revolver shifted in the grass. "Why do you care so much?"

Yusaku had plenty reasons to. Revolver was hardly ever clear about how much he knew or what kind of relationship he had to the two Exarchs, only that he probably picked up that phrase from one of them. No one ranked so high and employed so young would know so much about the experiments conducted by the first Crystal Exarch, especially when the incident was covered up thoroughly.

Either Revolver was simply privy to such sensitive information by virtue of being the Crystal Exarch's confidant, or he was a victim like Yusaku himself, a slave to the very same voice that kept them alive in those terrible months. The former wouldn't bother him very much. The Exarch was free to choose whatever company he wished, no matter how terrible. But if the latter were true, then why was Revolver here? Why would someone like himself (and to a lesser extent, Spectre) readily stake his life for an institution that only seemed to harm him in return?

"I knew someone, a fellow victim, who spoke like that," he lied, although he was sure that Revolver was aware enough to know that 'someone' was in fact referring to himself.

Neither of them spoke for a good minute or so, until Revolver exhaled deeply.

"Then I suppose you have a right to know," He finally said in a tone Yusaku had never heard in his life. It actually suited his rich baritones. "I shall not deprive you of that."

Confused, but still interested, Yusaku rearranged himself into a sitting position on the flowerbed. He had a feeling Revolver had much to say.

"The... Exarch and I..." Revolver started uneasily. "We had been close, for as long as I could remember. So yes, he has influenced me in more ways than one."

And so that was why Revolver spoke the same way Yusaku did. "Childhood friends, I take it?"

Revolver didn't correct him, nor did he confirm.

"As the warden of the Crystal Tower built by the Ancients of old, he bears the brand of the Exarch, which operates the tower and the Crystarium's defenses," he continued to explain. "So long as he breathes, the Crystarium and its people are safe from the eaters' blight."

The brand... Revolver must have meant that red arrangement of red crystals that decked the Crystarium's halls and banners, the formation that haunted Yusaku's memory of that fateful encounter with the boy, the young Crystal Exarch himself.

Curiously, Yusaku absently peered down at Revolver's hands, in hopes that looking could help him remember how the brand looked like, but the Drahn's armoreed gauntlets didn't reveal a single patch of skin. A shame.

"A valuable power in these trying times," Revolver noted. "Surely you can imagine what kinds of threats he faces should he leave his tower."

"That I do."

Revolver nodded slowly. "And so he trusted me to play my part in his mission. I had three duties, three things.

"First, I was to serve as his eyes and ears, to keep him safe, yet aware of the outside world.

"Second, I was to monitor the remnants of that decade old experiment, in case he had need of them.

"And third, I was to swear that I would not rest until Norvrandt is saved from the primordial Light."

Yusaku recognized an unmistakable reverence in his voice as he said listed his three things.

"But one fatal mistake, and I betrayed that trust and endangered his life," Revolver lifted one gloved hand and clenched it, as if reaffirming his resolve. "In my brief moment of weakness, I strayed from his path and forgot about the things that I… we… could ill afford to lose. He suffered because of me."

Yusaku wanted to ask what he meant by the mistake, but Revolver didn't give him any room to interrupt.

"I should have been punished, but I was not. Whether it was because of his mercy, or his cruelty, he never told me. Only that I must remember the three things that I had been raised and trained to do."

Raised and trained… Yusaku wasn't exactly sure what fatal accident Revolver was referring to for sure. He could recount the handful of altercations between the Crystarium and Soltis, but none of those led to anything serious, not since the death of the first Crystal Exarch. But if he was referring to the death of the first Crystal Exarch, Revolver would have been only a child at the time. It didn't make sense. Just who was Revolver really?

"Forgive my rambling," Revolver then said quickly, effectively ending all further discussion. "But that is all. Anything more would go against what I had promised not to tell. And I would not betray the Crystal Exarch a second time."

"He is that special to you?" Yusaku's voice sank to a whisper.

"I suppose… yes."

Special, Yusaku repeated the word in his mind. Yes, he supposed the Crystal Exarch was a special person to him. And he would be lying if he didn't think much of him, too. He always did wonder about whatever happened to that child. The one glimpse he had days ago wasn't much to go off of, but knowing that boy grew up to be someone, the Crystal Exarch, in fact, only raised more questions. Did his hair reach his knees from the isolation? Did his round cheeks grow sharper, his horns longer, his shoulders more filled? Did his eyes still carry the wondrous luster with his age? All Yusaku could do was guess, imagine, fantasize.

Yusaku studied Revolver for his sharp features, broad shoulders, and dour expression, the archetype of a Drahn man of age. If Yusaku dared to guess, the Crystal Exarch must have been around the same age as Revolver. But, of course, they couldn't be any more similar. The young Crystal Exarch he knew could never have become so arrogant and rude. And yet, that didn't put the irritating feeling of possibility in Yusaku's heart. Maybe that's what made him dislike Revolver so.

"The Exarch must live a lonely life, almost never leaving his tower," Yusaku then commented. "And with only you and few others as his companions."

Revolver scoffed. "I can assure you he's not lonely. In fact, he slips out often just to walk about the Crystarium."

Yusaku then remembered the time the Crystal Exarch intervened in the battle of Laxan Loft.

It seemed that the Exarch hadn't changed since he was a little boy. "Does it happen often?"

"Yes, and without telling any of the Hanoi Guard, too," Revolver added with a small laugh. "I suppose… that was my real punishment. He keeps many secrets from me these days."

Strange, Yusaku thought. He had never heard Revolver laugh so lightly. Like the past few minutes, this wasn't an unwelcome revelation. In the few years they've known each other, not once had they ever had a honest, genuine conversation. In the few and only times Yusaku willingly sided with the Hanoi Guard to slay sin eaters, he never ran into Revolver then, nor did he ever care to look. Moments ago, he would have dismissed him, but after that daring rescue and the moments afterwards, Yusaku couldn't help but feel oddly... calm by his presence.

No, no, Yusaku scolded himself and steeled his core. Revolver didn't save him out of genuine concern for him. He said so himself. No matter how sweet his words, no matter how honorable he seemed, the true reason for this pretense was because he was a valuable experiment and because the Crystal Exarch ordered him to. He couldn't forget that at the end of the day, Yusaku and his friends were weapons to the Hanoi. Nothing more.

"Did I come at a bad time?"

* * *

♬ | Fierce and Free by Nobuo Uematsu | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h41T80eDVI) | Spotify

Both of them looked aside and saw Yusaku's ghostly companion sitting cross legged on large flower. He looked thoroughly amused at the two of them lounging about in a patch of daisies.

"Oh good, you're not quite dead yet," Ai rested his chin on his hand without a single care in the world. "The fuath do love to drown every cute little thing they lay their hands on."

"And where by the shadows were you?" Yusaku snapped, recalling the moment Ai wouldn't answer him deep down in the fuath's domain. "I tried to summon you countless times in that trial and you wouldn't show."

"I told you, never liked the fuath that much," Ai folded his arms with a pout. "First rule about the fuath is never make a deal with one. Anyways, I ran into your friends. They're searching for you."

"Good," said Yusaku.

"Then why aren't we moving?"

"You are in no position to give us orders, Ignis," Revolver threatened him. Despite his complaints, however, he got up, albeit with some struggle. Yusaku himself felt his knees protest as he clambered to his feet. This wasn't good, to be so exhausted when they hadn't even met the Lightwarden of this region yet.

"Come on, already!" Ai skipped ahead up the hill in mid-air, almost as a taunt to Revolver. "Wokeldorf is just nearby."

Yusaku couldn't find it in himself to continue being angry at Ai and dedicated the remainder of his energy making it up the slope. When they reached the first hill, Revolver asked that they stop to catch their breath, and Yusaku was willing to agree with him for once. Ai huffed over their exhaustion, but he let them rest for as long as they needed.

From here, they had a wider view of Il Mheg's largest lake and the city ruins under it, overwhelmed by the underwater fauna. It made Yusaku forget for a moment that he wasn't here for the sights.

"You know, there was once a kingdom here before the Flood," Ai saw fit to include himself once more. "Great place, Voeburt. Best place to trade tales over some lamb stew…"

"Once a place," Revolver emphasized. "It's all dead and buried now."

Yusaku spotted the remains of the a brick wall, worn by time and the water. He liked to think that it had once been part of something important in the old kingdom, like a wizard's shop or a library. Voeburt was said to have been a center of knowledge for the arcane arts, and Yusaku could only imagine just what would happen had the kingdom still stood. Perhaps he and Kusanagi could have come here and found his answers almost immediately.

"A wonder how any Voeburtite texts could survive to this day," he wondered aloud. "Can barely see an inch of the old city."

"Indeed," Revolver agreed. "But there's more than mere smatterings of books and trinkets. This was someone's home, and who knows if all the people here left or not."

The ghost shot them a withering look.

"You two really know how to sap the joy out of everything I say, don't you?" Ai pointed out. "Allow me to reminisce on some fond memories for a change."

"You remember this place?" Yusaku asked. Ai did say his memory was spotty, so it must have been important that Voeburt remained.

"Before the Flood, before all this, I lived amongst humans, too, you know," Ai turned his gaze back on the lonely castle. "I lived here, specifically. For a while, at least, as their kin."

"Using your powers as an Ignis, you pretended to be human," Revolver corrected him.

"Well, it's not like we'd have preferred to live alone," Ai snipped back. "And you know I'm not the loner type!"

Judging by how much of a chatterbox Ai was, no. Yusaku couldn't imagine him staying sane living out in the woods away from the rest of humanity.

"For what it's worth, Norvrandt was home for a lot of us," Ai smiled sadly. "I wouldn't have traded it for anything else."

"Anything else but your own hides," Revolver said pointedly. "Did it take much to take to decide it was worth it?"

Ai didn't answer, but he didn't simply disappear into thin air like he did before. Yusaku watched his eyes shift away and began to ponder just what Ai wasn't telling any of them. Even if Ai was putting on a façade of mourning, Yusaku was convinced that he must have been fond of this kingdom. Yet something, someone, somewhere had won out in the end. Yusaku couldn't claim to know Ai completely, but he had to wonder how much Ai did regret what happened, otherwise he wouldn't be struggling to simply make amends.

"You best prepare an answer when all has been said and done," Revolver said as he got up on his feet again. It would seem that he had regained his strength to climb the next hill. "I'm leaving."

With nothing scathing to say in return, Ai turned his back turned his back to the castle, with Yusaku following suit. Yusaku watched their backs as they hiked up the knoll, his thoughts heavy. The two were similarly dishonest, but he wasn't quite sure who was better.

* * *

Yusaku had no expectations for Wokeldorf, but he didn't quite expect this many amaro congregated in one place. Even stranger, all the people in his party were here, laughing with each other as they stroked the amaros' wings. The amaro themselves didn't seem to mind being pet. In fact, they seemed quite happy.

Kusanagi was the first to spot them and pull away from the flock of amaros before receiving them at the entrance.

"You're back!" he yelled as he came running. "Gods, we thought you had drowned!"

"As you can see, I haven't," Yusaku waved off his concerns.

"After a daring rescue from Revolver," Ai added snidely, and Revolver snarled back at him for the unnecessary detail. Kusanagi struggled to speak

"Er… anyways, we planned to wait until Ai came back to speak to their leader," Kusanagi continued. "So now that you're back, shall we get to it?'

They rejoined the others, who were still having far too much fun playing with the amaro. Yusaku wasn't surprised that Takeru would be riding around on these creatures. Aqua and Ema seemed the kind who would adore anything soft and fluffy, but he didn't expect Aoi or Spectre to be so enamored with the amaros.

"Oh, you poor thing," Aoi spoke to one as she stroked their head. "Having no master for so long!"

"Aha, that tickles!" The amaro chortled. "'Tis not often we receive visits from mankind…"

Oh, Yusaku realized. It spoke. These must be incredibly old amaro from centuries past, or young amaro who somehow regained the ability of speech. The latter was rare, but he had heard stories.

"Ooh, do you prefer it here?" Takeru was far too engrossed in petting one amaro that he didn't notice Yusaku approaching him. "Or how about here?"

Regardless of where Takeru was petting them, the amaro crooned and sighed at wherever he touched. When Yusaku coughed politely to get his attention, Takeru fell off the amaro's back and crashed loud enough for everyone to stop and look.

"Oh, Yusaku, you're back!" Takeru went red in embarrassment as he scrambled back to his feet. "You're all right? You look all right. I think."

"We're about to go see the leader," Revolver recapped. "Are you about done?"

Any good will drained from Takeru immediately as soon as the Drahn spoke.

"Yes," he turned cold and brisk, but he was kind enough to give his newfound amaro friend an apologetic pat. "Their leader's this way."

In the ruins of a pair of stone walls was a massive nest, bigger than all the rest in this settlement. And in this nest was a the largest amaro he ever seen, slumbering peacefully, and loudly, too. Yusaku had never heard an amaro snore before, or at least Takeru's never snored.

They watched the amaro's feathers rise and fall for a while until Revolver spoke up.

"We should wake him."

Takeru took the initiative to climb into the nest and approach the amaro. After a closer look and few gentle pokes, he turned back to them and shook his head.

"I don't know," Takeru noted. "This one looks like a heavy sleeper."

"Perhaps it responds to a name," Aoi suggested. "All amaros here have names, don't they?"

"Yes, but we don't know this one's name," Aqua sighed. "We had asked the amaro around the settlement, and they didn't seem compelled to tell."

"If we can't wake them up politely, then we might have to use less than tasteful means to get their attention," Spectre pressed them, growing more impatient. "We haven't got all day."

Everyone glared at Spectre for even suggesting such an inconsiderate thing, but none of them were sure what else would work.

"This amaro…"

Attention turned to Ai appearing near the sleeping amaro with a pensive expression. While he hadn't reacted at all to the amaro in the settlement, Ai appeared to have remembered something about this amaro in particular.

"You know his name?"

"I… I do…" Ai reached out to pet them on the head, but drew back again when he remembered that he couldn't in the first place. "Linguriboh."

A deep rumble caught them all off guard as the amaro's eyes slid open and they reared its head. They searched around and stopped when their eyes fell on Ai. The amaro blinked twice in bewilderment.

"Ai… is that… you…?"


	13. the turning wheel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ai reunites with his old companion, Linguriboh, but the amaro has lingering doubts about Ai's return and Yusaku's ability to defeat the Lightwarden of Il Mheg. Time is running out, however, as the Sol army has advanced into Il Mheg. Ema and Kusanagi turn back to buy the party time, and against Ema's warnings about Akira, Aoi decides to confront him herself. The seal to the castle is undone, and the party faces the faerie king Titania.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't think I've said it yet, but thank you for the comments! They've kept me going for the past few weeks! All right time to get the plot rolling again.

♬ | No Greater Sorrow by Masayoshi Soken | [Youtube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hLMYy1LTEsI) | <s>Spotify</s>

The amaro blinked again, still unsure if their eyes were deceiving them. Ai waved his hands above his head to get their attention again.

"Linguriboh!" He said louder this time. "It's me! Ai!" [1]

And still, Linguriboh didn't respond. Yusaku was beginning to doubt that the aged creature could even see Ai.

"Linguriboh?"

Hearing their name called out again, the amaro's beak quivered.

"Ai…" they finally spoke again. "How can this be…? You are here, and yet you are not."

"It's… a long story," once again, Ai avoided the question. "But please, listen to what I have to say."

Ai motioned to the rest of the party. "See, I brought friends to help you, and we're going to kill that Lightwarden and be rid of this Light. And for that we need the relic you're holding onto to confront them."

The amaro was speechless still, and they continued to stare at Ai, completely perplexed at what they were even seeing, and certainly unsure if they should even believe a ghost. Yusaku supposed not all of Ai's former comrades could believe a dead friend could come back as a ghost.

"I… I apologize, but did I hear you correctly?" the amaro reeled back. "You desire the crystal shoes… that you may confront the Lightwarden?"

"Yes," Ai encouraged them. "That's exactly right!"

"That's impossible," Linguriboh frowned at him with suspicion. "No mortal has ever been able to kill a Lightwarden and live to tell the tale."

"You needn't worry," Spectre stepped forward. "The most of us are different from simple mortals. In fact, we have been engineered to be immune to the Light's corruption."

"I… struggle to believe what I am hearing and seeing," Linguriboh shook their head furiously. "Even if what you claim is true, vanquishing the king… will bring you naught but sorrow."

"We understand your concern," Spectre continued to press. "But we have no choice in this matter. Please, will you not reconsider?"

The amaro craned their head away, to hide their hurt expression from everyone watching. Yusaku was beginning to wonder if they were doing everything wrong. Ai's presence was one surprise, but a ragtag bunch of adventurers was another surprise.

"I know you have spoken with my brethren before you came to see me."

"We did," Aqua held her hands close to her chest. "Each and every one of them told us about their former masters and how they grieve the loss of companionship to this day."

"Then you would understand that I do not scorn you, but that I fear for you all," Linguriboh looked behind them to the castle on the hill. "Leave this place and forget this folly. I say this for your own good."

"Linguriboh, what's gotten into you?" Ai asked. "You may not have been able to speak to me, but I never took you for someone to run away from a chance to do good."

"A lot can change over time, and I am no longer the foolish youth I once was," Linguriboh replied flatly. "I simply cannot bear to see more men fight and die. Not anymore."

"You needn't be so cold," Ai's hands fell to his side. "You don't trust me, Linguriboh?"

The amaro didn't even look at him. "You bear his face, but I… I cannot say any more than that. I know not if I can trust a mere image of you."

Discouraged, Ai slowly backed away to the edge of the nest, and Yusaku looked back to Linguriboh and began thinking of possible arguments to volley back. Convincing the amaro wouldn't be as easy as the others where they only needed to fight and do petty favors, for those who meant well were just as difficult, if not even more so, as those who meant ill.

However, all his ponderings were quickly dashed when someone else stepped forward to confront Linguriboh.

"Well, this makes little sense," Takeru spoke up. "If you cannot believe what we say, then allow us to prove ourselves, at least?"

Even if it was only for a second, Linguriboh turned their head. "Prove yourselves?"

"It's true that the Light's corruption is harmful, and none of us know what's keeping you from believing Ai," Takeru continued. "But when we said we could fight them, we truly meant it."

Ai looked up from where he had been sulking. Whether it was surprise or joy in his eyes to be defended by supposed allies, Yusaku didn't pause to think on it.

"Takeru's right," Yusaku followed up. "It would be unfair to dismiss us outright. This is our battle, too."

A mix of emotions flashed across Linguriboh's features, and they fell quiet once again. They looked over the entire party, lingering on Ai for the longest while, before they dove back into thought again.

"Very well," the amaro then conceded. "Meet me in the clearing to the east. There I will lure out the fiends for you to slay. See that you are well prepared."

"Wait, lure them out?" Takeru was surprised that his idea even worked. "How does that even work?"

"I use my voice to lure out the sin eaters," if an amaro could smirk, then Yusaku was sure that they did. "I still know all the tricks from when I went on hunts with old friends. Now come."

A gust of wind hit Yusaku and the others in the face as the amaro spread their wings to full span. With a few encouraging flaps, they took off into the air, and flew eastward. At the very least, they weren't soundly rejected, and they had Takeru to thank for that.

"This all seems rather tedious, don't you agree?" Ema quipped as she waved away the dust that had yet to settle.

"Better to grant them this one request rather than get nothing at all," Kusanagi gave her a sympathetic push along the way, and the party began to move in the same direction as Linguriboh.

* * *

♬ | Thicker than a Knife's Blade by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0YMmRuFffo) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/2Je1Qj9G135hO9HjhbG2d0?si=qu1UXswqS7KGWN04TvFXvQ)

Yusaku pulled the head of his lance out from the disintegrating mass that was once a small flock of sin eaters and turned to Linguriboh, who had been watching the entire time.

"How do you think of our performance?" Ai asked as he and the others rejoined Yusaku at the center of the clearing. "Have we exceeded your expectations?"

"I can see that you are capable," the amaro gave an impressed nod. "However, I still require time to think. Let us return to Wokeldorf."

The walk back was silent, with Ai bouncing along in better but wary spirits, but Yusaku was not particularly optimistic. The fact that Linguriboh had yet to give his verdict was concerning. At this rate, they were going to be duly turned away because a few sin eaters would certainly not compare to a Lightwarden. Linguriboh was only doing this to humor them, Yusaku thought darkly as they returned to the amaros' haven.

"Before we proceed, there is… a favor I would ask of you all," Linguriboh said as they settled back into their nest.

"Will there be more things to stab?" Takeru asked, but the amaro shook their head.

"No, not a test of strength, you've performed adequately. This is a personal request."

The amaro locked eyes with Ai once more. "I would ask that you help find my most prized possession, that gift Ai and I shared long before he departed. I lost it in the heat of battle against sin eaters, and it had fallen to a place I couldn't reach."

Yusaku folded his arms against his chest to consider Linguriboh's request. The question didn't seem all that pertinent to their quest, but if this would help curry favor with the amaros, they would allow it. With Ai's help, they would likely make quick work of this.

"So you want us to retrieve this… treasure?" He asked for clarification.

"Er… yes… in a way," the amaro apologized.

"But that's impossible,' Ai suddenly spoke. "It wasn't an object, it was a view."

Ai then pointed out to the Lyhe Ghiah.

"It was this very castle, in fact," he smiled weakly. "Where we first met. When you showed me the thrill of tossing me off your back from the top of that spire to show me how Voeburt looked like from above." [2]

As a self taught rider of flying creatures, Yusaku resisted the urge to express any shock. Beautiful view or not, nearly hurtling to one's death did not sound at all like a good thing to remember. But who was Yusaku to judge? Ai wasn't the only one with unfortunate choices for fond memories.

"Linguriboh," Ai said quieter this time. "You still don't trust me, do you?"

The amaro trembled, and their eyes welled up. "I… You… remembered… It really is you…"

A dam must have broke in the poor thing, because now they were completely inconsolable. While some, Ai included, began to soothe the amaro.

"I apologize… for disbelieving you…" The winged faerie cried. "I thought you came to mock me… Like many others…"

"Mock you…?" Ai was astonished. "But why? Who would do such a thing?"

"Man," Linguriboh sobbed. "It was man."

"Man?" Ai asked. "I know that they blamed us for all that had happened, but what did they do to you…?"

"They didn't all blame you, Ai," Linguriboh sobbed. "There were some few who spoke up for you… all the lives you and your comrades touched when you still walked this star and I could not speak, only watched."

Ai fell silent at this, unable to say anything clever or reassuring in response.

"But eventually all those voices were drowned out over time, the only ones left were those who uttered your names as a curse," Linguriboh said. "It was too much for me to bear, and so I left behind men and their lies… It was an irrational thought of mine but… I feared one day they would come looking for me and..."

The amaro bowed their head in another bout of tears and apologies. The degree to how badly the amaro was reacting to Ai's reappearance was beginning to make Yusaku wonder about the unspeakable things happened to those who were "drowned out." Beliefs, ideas, and people rarely were silenced with a whimper.

"You have endured much to see me again today," Ai reached out to stroke his old friend's head, even if the gesture was entirely in vain. "And… I'm sorry."

"No… it is not you who should apologize," from their sorrow came an unexpected smile. "You may not… have made the wisest decisions, but you deserved to be happy. No matter what others think of you now… my heart remains proud that I stood by your side."

"I…" Ai was ready to say the contrary, but he relented. "Thank you, I… needed to hear that."

Yusaku glanced aside to Revolver and Spectre, who had remained largely silent, and he wondered what observations they were making out of Linguriboh's account. Now that there lay a centuries old story that was told untruthfully, were their convictions so resolute now? If they, Revolver especially, were as honorable as they claimed, they would see the truth through to the end.

"The memorable place that you and Ai were so fond of will be restored," Yusaku said to Linguriboh. "It will not be the same as it once was, but when the Lightwarden falls, the ruins can still bring you solace."

"You are very kind," the amaro bashfully inclined, although Yusaku personally begged to differ. "Not that different from my old… partner in crime."

"We aren't at all alike!" Ai protested. "I'm plenty agreeable! And he's… er…"

The ghost trailed off, unwilling to finish that sentence, but Yusaku knew what he was about to say. And it was wise of him to keep his mouth shut.

"Perhaps I am jesting, but when we amaro were created, we were granted the ability to perceive souls so that we might recognize our masters," Linguriboh laughed, a welcome sight compared to their earlier display. "That ability has long since faded from our kind, but perhaps my reversion has allowed me to see it, your soul. Faintly, but surely. And it bears striking resemblance to Ai's."

"Then perhaps it's because Ai is bound to Yusaku," Kusanagi suggested. "It would be hard to tell the difference when they're in such close proximity."

"Of course," Linguriboh conceded. "My… senses may be failing me, but I know not to make conclusions. They may appear as one, but the two are separate. Tis' the path we walk that defines us, not the souls we bear."

The amaro then procured something that glowed blindingly white, and placed it in Yusaku's hands. When the light receded, Yusaku saw that it was a pair of shoes. For something that must have been in Linguriboh's care, they were surprisingly unmarred by the elements.

"The relic is yours," Linguriboh said. "I place my faith in you and your comrades to do what we cannot."

So this made four relics. He had his doubts that they'd manage to sway all of the fae folk to give their blessings, but somehow, they did it. All that was left now was to take these relics up to the castle gates and meet the faerie king themselves.

* * *

♬ | Neverborn by Nobuo Uematsu | <s>Youtube</s> | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/1aOpoccpJaSk9sdSnRlUwF?si=fiCBhHnbSSuxzCVmC3r5Eg)

"Trouble! Terrible trouble!"

They all sound around and saw two pixies flying to them. Yusaku instantly recognized Roboppy by the the pinks of their wings.

"What happened?" Revolver demanded.

"Nasty mortals at the border of Il Mheg!" Roboppy cried. "And we thought to play tricks on them."

"At first they ran off screaming, which was lots of fun!" The other pixie giggled briefly before turning into disappointment. "But then some scary mortals came along and spoiled everything! That masked one especially!"

"That's right, nothing worked him!" Roboppy stomped their foot in the air. "No fun at all! But they're getting closer and closer... They might hit our village!"

"Blood Shepherd and Akira..." Ema simmered. "We can only evade them for so long..."

Aqua tugged on Ema's sleeve nervously. "Does this mean we can't go after the Lightwarden as planned?"

"Not if the rest of us have a say in the matter," Kusanagi reassured the girl. "We should divide our forces and deal with each threat accordingly."

"You want us to split up?" Takeru protested. "How are we going to match up to a Lightwarden without a full party?"

"I don’t see how this could pose a problem," Spectre raised one eyebrow. "The only ones here fit to fight are those of us who were chosen. I highly doubt the rest of your absences would have any effect on our battle with the Lightwarden."

Takeru opened his mouth to criticize, then stopped himself short, choosing a dark expression instead. The way Spectre went about describing their current state from those decade old experiments was the least of their problems at the present.

"Then I should head back to the village and hold off the Sol army for as long as I can," Ema caught on quickly. "Even if I fail, my efforts should delay them long enough."

"I'll come with you!" Aoi caught Ema by the wrist. "My brother... I wish to see him... If anyone can talk him down so he'll spare Aqua it should be-"

"No," Ema pried Aoi's fingers off of her, and gently pushed her back towards Aqua. "Akira cannot be anywhere near Lady Aqua. You will stay here."

"How can you say that I don't-"

"Do not argue with me on this," Ema stood her ground. "He is not the man you think he is. I'd rather you not see him at his worst."

Aoi darted her hand out again for Ema's. "But I can do this! At least let me-"

"Stop thinking about yourself for a change, and listen to me," for the final say, Ema swatted Aoi's hand away sharply. "Stay. With. Lady. Aqua."

This was the closest Yusaku had ever seen the woman express any degree of frustration at anyone in the party so far. Even Aoi herself was taken aback, and she couldn't summon the courage to press further.

"I'll accompany you," Kusanagi took Ema's side. "There's no way you could fight if you have no support."

"Kusanagi?" Yusaku looked askance, but the older man began digging the relics out of his bag for Takeru to hold.

"There's more than enough healers here who can keep you safe," Kusanagi reassured them. "I'd only get underfoot if I fought the Lightwarden with you."

"Promise you'll make a hasty retreat when the lights go out?" Takeru asked.

"Promise."

"We've little time," Ema reminded them. "Come, we'll ask an amaro to fly us across the lake."

The two raced off in the direction of a flock of amaro grazing quietly, and Yusaku stared longer than necessary after them. There was much he wanted to say, but he had prudence not to follow through in the end. As much as their previous experiences with the Sol army taught them otherwise, he had to trust that Kusanagi would come out of this alive. Hopefully, Kusanagi was of the same mind. There was someone back home who needed him far more than Yusaku did.

"Forgive me," Linguriboh bowed their head. "It seems my indecision has cost you precious time."

"You needn't apologize, Linguriboh," Ai forgave them. "You were right to question your trust in us at first. But we've convinced you well enough, haven't we?"

"The way to Lyhe Ghiah is as you and I both remember it," the amaro instructed them. "But for those who do not, it is to the south. The gate will open to you now that you bear all four relics."

"Our many thanks," Revolver gave a polite bow, and Spectre followed suit.

* * *

The trek to Il Mheg had been a miserable experience for Akira and his men. They were beset by a thick fog that completely deprived anyone in the troops of a sense of direction, and some of them couldn't even regroup after running into the fog, never to be seen again. Never in Akira's life had he ever seen his men's morale decline so rapidly. The Hanoi soldiers and the Blue Angel running away into the northern woods made it look far too easy.

Now they came across a village of pixies, but at present, none of those creatures were to be found. The only way he even knew they lived in these meadows were the frequent cries of distress from his remaining men. These pixies had taken to playing cruel tricks on them, all while hiding under some cloak of invisibility. Akira wondered if the pixies targeted them because they were simply bored or because the Hanoi who passed here commanded them to cause trouble. Akira didn't like either of these reasons.

"Godsdamn pixies," Akira muttered under his breath as he kept his guard up. Even though he was a man of the holy blade, he had little affinity for magic and so had much trouble trying to detect the pixies' presence.

Blood Shepherd, who had been skilled to keep himself (and some of the others) alive, was ever so vigilant. The masked man hardly moved when they reached the gate, but suddenly, he whipped one hand out into the air and managed to catch something. Akira watched the air around the man's hand warp and wane into the form of a pixie wriggling in his grasp.

"Let me go!" The pixie wailed, feigning pain, although Blood Shepherd's grip was convincing. "Get your hands off of me!"

Akira expected some form of divine retribution to come after harming a pixie, but none came. Blood Shepherd looked to him and held up their little hostage, having come to the same observation. It would seem that the fae folk were not as powerful as they were purported to be. This was good. They could use this to their advantage.

"Listen well!" he shouted out into the empty village, although he had confidence that the pixies no doubt could hear him. "We come in pursuit of villains who have fled to this land. You know who they are and where they've gone."

Still, there was no answer. Not even a trick.

"Show yourselves and answer!" He demanded. "Lest my men lose patience…"

He turned to Blood Shepherd then closed his fist around his captive, ignoring the pitiful noises it made as he did so.

"Enough!" A familiar voice called their attention, and Akira looked to the top of the hill where it had come from.

Running out into the open was Ema, ready to engage them with her knives. He didn't expect Ema, the more mercenary one between themselves, would come out of hiding so soon because an insignificant creature such as a pixie was in danger. Since when was she ever be allowed to grow a conscience?

Following closely beside Ema was a man Akira vaguely recognized. He was one of the sinners abetting Aqua's escape from the ships at Laxan Loft. Considering that the Blue Angel wasn't there with them would imply that Ema trusted the Hanoi to keep her ward safe.

"We can't let you step one malm past this village," Ema declared. "You will not interfere with the Oracle's work."

"Your work, if we must be pedantic," Akira corrected her. "You think I would be so daft as to do as you ask? Your tricks will not work on me as they did the child you stole from us!"

"She wasn't stolen from you," Ema argued. "The choice to leave was hers. I simply assisted her where you would rather see her stay waste away under your superior's."

"That girl is powerless in this new world," Akira shot back. "She has no life nor purpose save that which our masters see fit to permit."

The last remark turned the frown on Ema's face into something furious.

"If she hadn't any power to help change this world, it will have been because of you," she seethed. "I thought you wanted to change Soltis for Aoi and Aqua's sake... but instead you've become the sanctimonious swine you've always loathed. I wouldn't be able to tell you apart from the rest of those nobles if I tried."

Akira flared where he stood. How... Dare this woman fling such assumptions at him. As if she truly understood all those years he spent barely making enough to keep himself and Aoi alive. As if she knew what it took to claw his way back from squalor for him and Aoi to live in any reasonable means. No, Ema didn't understand, otherwise why would she have taken Aqua away from the open arms of Soltis?

"Don't speak to me as if you know how I feel," Akira grinded out just as bitterly. "It's you who failed to understand that defiance begets only more suffering."

To this, Ema didn't answer, only gave her knives a testing spin. She looked more ready than ever to start the fight. The question now was when she would strike.

"Soltis was better when we no longer abided to the old ways," he let out a mirthless laugh. "It is through acceptance alone that-"

Akira's hair stood on end as he instinctively raised his shield to block a wave of arcane magic directed for his head. He peered around the corner and saw that the man who was with Ema had thrown the first blow. At a first glance, he was rather unimpressive, dressed in robes that would offer little protection against a blade. What caught Akira's attention more was the open grimoire in his hands.

"Loyal ward of the sunless sea, from winking stars descend to me…" he chanted. "Heed my call, Moon Carbuncle!" [3]

Magic gathered at the man's feet and formed into a four legged creature that resembled a white fox. It immediately took to dancing around its master, brushing its tail against his knees. Akira should have known as soon as he saw the tomes strapped to the mage's belt. This man was not only from the Crystarium, but a practitioner of the old arts. Such mages were scarce in this realm, especially now that scholars' forums no longer existed.

"You there, sinner," Akira called out, shield still up. "I must have your name."

"Shoichi Kusanagi," the man spat back. Perhaps Akira should take back any compliment he had for him.

"Sir Kusanagi," he drew out his blade, prompting the rest of his men to do the same. "You see awfully brave to stand up to me when we both know the outcome of our last meeting."

"I care not about what happened in the past," Kusanagi replied. "You'll find that I am unfortunately very skilled at learning from my mistakes."

"Is that so?" Akira . "Then allow me the first strike to see if you are as you say!"

"Ten… Jin… Chi… Doton!"

Akira looked aside and saw that Ema had finished weaving a sign, summoning a patch of corruption that stretched to trap all of his men from running for the hills.

"You will not leave this place," Ema repeated to him again, and Akira never hated her so much as he did right now.

* * *

♬ | More Than Truth by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0bE4wSOe78) | <s>Spotify</s>

The party journeyed up the marble steps into the overgrown courtyard of Lyhe Ghiah, but Aoi was far too sour to appreciate any of the scenery. Ema's rejection stung Aoi like an reopened wound, and it took every ilm of propriety in her to not throw a fit over it. Ema was completely correct that Aoi could compromise her and Aqua's safety if she ran back to Akira, but still… that didn't mean Ema had to be so cold.

As they walked, Aoi kept sneaking glances over to Aqua, who stared straight on ahead. If Aqua held any sympathy for her, she certainly wasn't showing any, because of her mission and all. Aoi was trying her best not to be bitter, but how could both Aqua and Ema be inconsiderate as to keep her from hearing the truth from her brother's lips?

For all of Ema and Aqua's reasons for leaving Soltis, the one thing that was lost on Aoi was why they didn't seem to turn to Akira for help. Akira, of all people! Her brother may have been absent at a great many times, but never had he done Aqua nor Ema any wrong to warrant betrayal. There was too much Aoi didn't know or understand, and she wasn't sure if she could stay quiet any longer. Not at such a crucial moment where she might not be able to save them from the point of no return.

At the other end of the courtyard from the stairway was the entrance to the castle, a massive pair of doors four times Aoi's height. She could have believed this was a castle built for giants, but as far as she could tell so far, the people who once lived here must have had a penchant for the grand and majestic. Much like her home city, Soltis.

The instant the four relics were held to the doors, an enchanted wall of otherworldly runes glowed white and began to spin in place. After a fitful display of lights, the seal on the doors were undone, and the castle welcomed them with open arms. No one moved at first, unsure if it was safe to pass through into the castle. It took one of the sinners cautiously waving a hand into the empty space that was the open doors to be sure.

The sinners all exchanged grim looks with each other and began their preparations for the trial up ahead. They had been meticulous hours ago back at the cottage, but a loose cross guard or a misplaced potion could spell danger for the rest of them.

"Will you be all right, Roboppy?" The Warrior of Darkness, Yusaku, looked to the pixie that had accompanied them to the castle this entire time. It was an odd sight, Aoi thought, to see him show any semblance of concern after their cold introduction.

"Oh, my adorable sapling," Roboppy twirled in the air. "If anything, it is Titania you should fear. Beyond this gate, you will find only a being bereft of reason and mercy, nothing like the king we once knew."

"But they are your king, aren't they?" Ai, the ghostly companion whom Aoi understood was bound to Yusaku, asked as well. "Does it not concern you that they will die by Yusaku's hand?"

Although no one expected the pixie to be sad by the prospect of loss, their posture slackened.

"We fae folk my live unfettered lives, yet we are still bound by laws," they reminded him. "To take back as much as is taken. To create as much as is destroyed. To give as much as is received. Balance will always be preserved… that is all that has been asked of you."

To this, Yusaku pursed his lips and folded his arms across his chest, and Ai did the same. Even though Aoi did not feel all that sorry for them, she also found the pixie's words suspicious. Were the four relics not a fine enough compensation? What else would these fae folk ask of them?

"But worry not," Roboppy comforted them. "Come what may, your beautiful branch will ever be at your side."

Nothing on Yusaku's face betrayed confusion or understanding, but he seemed motivated enough to motion to the other sinners to follow him.

So the trial to face a monstrous beast was about to commence, Aoi thought to herself. What would her brother think of her, if he knew that she was disobeying the laws laid down by their mayor? As thrilling as the prospect of him looking her way for once was, Aoi would not go so far as to betray Soltis for his attention…

She had to go back there to let him know that she had the capacity to keep the true Blue Angel safe. This would be no different from how it was back home when Aoi pretended to be Blue Angel on all the stages in Soltis. If they had the chance to smooth things out, he would have to listen to her first and foremost. Wouldn't he?

"Aoi?"

Aqua's call made Aoi realized just how much time had passed. The Warrior of Darkness and the two, taller Hanoi sinners had already walked through the gate before them, not even once looking back. Aqua was one of the only ones to notice that she hadn't joined along with them and stayed behind. This was the first Aqua had spoken to her since Ema had gone.

"Apologies," she quickly avoided looking Aqua in the eye. "I was… occupied."

"You want to see Akira, don't you?"

All this while, a part of Aoi was afraid that Aqua would tell her off the same way Ema did. But she had the courtesy to ask.

"I do..." Aoi confessed. "There's no time left. If I could speak to my brother, we can avoid bloodshed and-"

"Then you should go, shouldn't you?" Aqua continued tonelessly. "I have the feeling that you will go whether or not we stop you."

There was no judgment in Aqua's voice. Aoi wanted to say that Aqua was trying to cast doubt, but she was simply stating an observation. She could never lie to Aqua, because then Aqua would know and possibly hold it against her for the rest of their life. If only Ema could see that Aoi could, in fact, think about people other than herself and her brother…

"If you have unfinished business," the one sinner who stayed behind finally spoke. "Best clear that up before you start stumbling over those loose ends."

The boy was a Hume with red and white hair slicked back. Aoi faintly recalled his name from when they were resting in Spectre's cottage. He was equally outspoken as Spectre, but he was nowhere near a bully as that elf. [4]

"Don't you worry a thing about the Oracle," Takeru grinned helpfully. "I won't let that warden hurt a single hair on her head."

A lofty promise, Aoi noted, but she acknowledged his earnestness, nonetheless.

"How kind of you, for a sinner."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't hear that," he returned with a light threat of his own, but Aoi thought him too good natured to mean it. "Now get going, won't you? We have it covered here."

This was a risk, but Aoi had to take it.

"I'll hold you to it," Aoi hated to admit it, but Takeru's encouragement relit the spark in her eyes. This was a task that only she could do.

She then felt a cool, comforting sensation well over her, and she looked back to Aqua, who had taken out her staff and cast a ward of protection over her. It may not have been her strongest spell, but this would protect her for longer than a few bells if Aoi was careful.

"Be careful," Aqua wished her well. She didn't ask for Aoi to come back to her when this was all over, nor did she tell her to stay with Akira and leave her and Ema behind. Only that she stayed safe. Aoi hoped neither was the case.

"I will."

Confident in her decision, Aoi ran down the stairs and back across the meadow back to Wokeldorf. Like Ema and Kusanagi before her, she would ask one of the amaro as nicely as possible to fly her to Lydha Lran. Hopefully, she could catch Akira before he and Ema exchanged blows. She had to fix this somehow.

* * *

♬ | What Angel Wakes Me by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=saYCZ9jzLEA) | <s>Spotify</s>

What lay beyond the doors was a glorious ballroom lit by the light spillling through the stained glass windows encompassing the entire chamber. At the foot of the grand staircase was King Titania, a gowned figure with wings just as brilliant as the ballroom itself. Yusaku doubted at first that the faerie king was as mad as they said, but he knew better than to trust appearances.

"Beautiful, aren't they?" Ai commented, and Yusaku shot him a look. "What? I'm simply stating what I see."

"Who goes there?" They called out, and they spotted the party standing at the opposite end of the room, weapons at the ready. Yusaku once again took the lead and took his position in front of everyone else.

"Yusaku's leading," He heard Ai instruct Aqua, doing all he could to make her feel at ease. "So he'll draw the attention away from the rest of us."

"Ai has the right of it," Takeru added cheerily. "Let him do all the heavy lifting so we can beat the warden up real nice, yeah?"

"Right!" Aqua answered, and Yusaku could hear her psych herself up with a quiet tune. She was going to do all right by him.

"Spectre," Revolver commanded from behind him, and the other Hanoi guard did as asked. He drew a sequence of cards from his deck and cast a barrier on everyone. Yusaku didn't like the feeling of someone who wasn't Kusanagi casting a shielding spell on him, but as far as he could tell, it was reliable enough.

"So much time lost…" the king simpered at their guests. "So much frolicking and feasting left undone… Let us make up for it and play! Play with me!"

Yusaku never liked the idea of heroics, but they had gone too far deep into this mess to simply run away. They may not have had all their cards at play, but he could not think now about the possibility of losing.

* * *

1 Seto's character was originally meant to be Roboppy while Ai was not going to be able to be seen by anyone but Yusaku. At another point, Seto was to be renamed Earth and Aqua's shared amaro. Eventually I pivoted back to making this part of Ai's storyline to keep the story centered on him and Yusaku.

2 This is a messy part that probably will be fixed heavily when I have the time to get back to it. I was too lazy to adapt the part where you have to go dive into the lake to find some medallion, so instead it's a brief exploration about the vicarious trauma Linguriboh likely went through.

3 The incantation is partially adapted from a Light spell incantations taken from Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together. While there summons like Titan or Ifrit don't inherently exist on the First in the original text, Carbuncles are fair game. Besides, it would be very cute for Kusanagi to have a whole pack of Carbuncles of many colors following him around.

4 Takeru in this story has his pre-Den City rugged looks because it's a compromise for incorporating his more Soulburner like tendencies into his real life self. It's also because I liked that look a lot more than I should, and he probably wears it up to keep hair out of his eyes while doing work.


	14. rejoice and revel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aoi confronts her brother Akira about coming to a peaceful resolution with the Hanoi. Meanwhile, Yusaku and the others succeed in defeating Titania, and Roboppy accepts the title in Yusaku's stead. With their second Lightwarden vanquished, the party fly back to Lydha Lran and chase out the Sol army after Aoi's talks fail. With the fae folk now on their side, the party are given a trip back to the Crystarium by the Crystal Exarch himself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Unfortunate chapter title this time, but thank goodness for patch day motivating me to get this chapter written.

♬ | The Coil Tightens by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOI4RF681IU) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/7lNFatr05TyjGvUPNXYdhn?si=8Q_tHwFSSw2fcL0FwfW9hA)

Yusaku held his ground against a rather difficult blow from a flaming fireball summoned on top of him.

"Something's coming, a growth rune, most likely," Ai spoke into his ear, and Yusaku took a step back to lure Titania away from the others. This way no one else could get caught up in whatever terrible spell they had in store.

For such a difficult fight, he was thankful that Ai was so eager to point everything out, otherwise he would have been squashed by Titania's many ridiculous elemental runes. Surely but slowly, they were whittling the Lightwarden down, but he doubted the party could last any longer than another bell.

"Prepare yourself, fiend!" Revolver shouted from behind Titania.

From what little Yusaku could see, Revolver was gathering massive amounts of aether for something grand and flashy, just like he did the last time they fought a massive opponent. If it worked the first time, he was wont to try the same maneuver again. Yusaku had seen enough to know when to move out of the way to avoid getting hit by the beam. The only issue here was that Titania was also preparing something equally nasty, some rune they hadn't seen before but weren't willing to find out.

"Twist and sprout!" they taunted them.

"My lord!" Spectre shouted over to him over the din. If he was shouting, then that meant that he and Aqua were too far away from Revolver to provide backup.

Despite Spectre's warning, Revolver did not back down from all the aether he was gathering into his gun. As much as this was prime time to finish off the Lightwarden faerie, it simply wasn't worth the risk. Unless someone could cast some sort of protection on him.

Just as the thought crossed his mind, Ai's ghostly form leapt and twisted into the air and became a dark cloud of magic that settled comfortably in Yusaku's hands. Without needing to think, Yusaku flung Ai straight at Revolver's direction, imagining that he could manifest a protective sphere.

And just on time, too, because Titania finished casting first and planted a tree right where Revolver was standing. All activity stopped out of worry for the Drahn, but the tree began to warp at the trunk and the telltale beam burst out and ripped right through Titania. On cue, Yusaku charged forward and delivered a final slash right up the distracted Titania's back.

The faerie king screeched as they were forced to the ground, a string of unintelligible curses spilling from their lips.

"We can play… no more…" The faerie king whined one last time before collapsing in a glowing heap of aether that had once corrupted them.

Slowly but surely, the light floated towards Yusaku and settled within his soul, just like the first time he had defeated a Lightwarden. It was still uncomfortable feeling the foreign aether twist itself into knots with his, but at least it wasn't painful. Whether this was a good or bad thing had yet to be seen.

"The warden," Aqua asked, steadying herself with her staff. "Is it gone?"

"Definitely can't see 'em!" Ai grinned. "We did it!"

Leaving Yusaku's side, Ai launched into a celebratory dance around Aqua. Takeru, having no sense of shame after a near-death experience, joined them in their silly dance, and Spectre pointed and laughed at them, probably just as delirious himself.

"Huzzah!" Yusaku heard a voice above him, and he looked up to see Roboppy coming down to congratulate him. "The fallen king has been freed! I expected no less, my adorable sapling!"

"Oh, Roboppy!" Ai laughed on his way over. "Come to enjoy the festivities?"

"The moment blessings are bestowed upon the new faerie king? I wouldn't miss it for the world!"

"The new king?" Ai came to a slow, confused stop. Even the others did not appear to have foreseen this. "Does this mean…?"

"That one of us is eligible for the throne?" Yusaku completed his sentence. He had hoped that the relics wouldn't cause any further problems.

"Correct!" Roboppy nodded. "Those who bear the four relics have the honor to relieve the monarch of the throne and take their place."

"But we are no faeries," Yusaku pointed out. "None of us here would qualify on principle."

"Not a concern, my sapling!" Roboppy explained. "Those who choose to ascend to the throne will become one of us. 'Twould be a different life than the one you know, yes, for you will never again live as your own kind do."

In other words, death. Just like how the fuath had wanted to do with him, Yusaku remembered grimly.

"So is it set in stone?" Ai asked. "Yusaku did deal the last blow, so it would be incredibly inconvenient for us if he had to become a faerie..."

"Such sacrifice is not required, precious mortals," Roboppy wagged a finger at them. "For your lovely branch will accept the crown in your stead."

They could do that?

"It's because of our pact, isn't it?" Yusaku took a guess.

"Indeed," Roboppy smiled. "We fae folk live forever, while such is not your virtue. Instead, burn bright and whine as only you can."

Using their own magic, the pixie lifted the four relics into a circle around themselves. In reaction, the relics glowed even brighter, to the point of blinding anyone who looked straight ahead.

"[Rejoice and revel]," Roboppy's words echoed throughout the the castle and we're likely heard all throughout Il Mheg. "[For the Kingdom of Il Mheg is forever young.]"

They raised the scepter in a brilliant display of light and glitter. In an instant, the ballroom was awash in newer, brighter shades of blue, orange, and pink. Yusaku was reminded of the meadows from the first faerie settlement they visited.

"Yusaku, look!" Ai directed his attention back to where he had last seen Roboppy, no, the newly crowned faerie king Titania.

No longer were they the tiny little pixie that flitted around their heads, but a statuesque figure, much like the previous Titania. They even dressed the same way, only in different colors that suited Roboppy better. Yusaku could scarcely believe that this was the same little, impish Roboppy.

"They're so beautiful..." Aqua gasped in awe. Spectre hummed in agreement. Yusaku had no eye for what counted as beautiful or not, but he had to admit that it was difficult to look away from Roboppy.

"Rather fitting for the title of king, isn't it?" Ai grinned ear to ear. "How does it feel, Roboppy? Or wait, should we call you Titania from now on?"

"I can do with either…"

While Ai and Roboppy conversed, Yusaku spared a glance to one of the few windows that had a view of the night outside. He could still see patches of the light lingering in the sky, but surely ebbing away. Just how much time had passed within these walls?

"We are finished here, correct?" Revolver, evidently of the same mind, interrupted their chatter. "We should hurry back to Kusanagi and the others."

"Right, of course!" Takeru was quick to respond. "They'll need the extra hands to give those Sol knights a beating!"

"Yes!" Seeing an even larger version of Roboppy clap like an excited child was a new yet familiar experience. "We shall attend to those trespassers! Let this be our first act as king!"

"Then let us hurry back to Wokeldorf," Spectre then suggested and led the way. While the others followed after him, Yusaku began to half hobble, half stride to the entrance. The last fight may have gone on for too long than he had hoped.

"So… That spell you sent my way…"

Yusaku looked back at Revolver, who had lingered behind.

"That was for earlier," Yusaku said in a hurry. "I'd hate to be indebted to you."

Revolver stared back for a few charged seconds before he built up to a small smile. "Much appreciated, Fujiki."

* * *

♬ | Damnation by Nobuo Uematsu | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFHuiHYkVt8) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/1ywCcKbrJBRbljghkTJMDV?si=YJ9FruVJR8uPa3NZgw0drA)

Aoi had little time to thank the amaro who so graciously flew her back here as she leapt right off its back and broke into a run past the makeshift gate. She had psyched herself up the entire time during the flight back. There was no time to be afraid of anything. Everything hinged on how fast she could reach Akira and diffuse the entire conflict. Her resolve only drove her to run harder.

The faeries were keeping up a good fight against the soldiers, but Aoi was unlikely to believe they would win because the Sol soldiers were taller and undoubtedly stronger. To make matters worse, the two people she needed to be up and at it were… in a different position.

Kusanagi was already down, wrestling against the handful of soldiers pinning him down. His book had been thrown aside, but his little pet was still free to fight. One soldier managed to butt the pommel of his sword right into it, but the carbuncle recovered quickly and pounced at his arm, teeth bared. Aoi immediately recognized the man's voice by his cry.

"Brother!" She cried over the din.

"Aoi?!" Akira stopped mid-swing, kicking the poor Carbuncle aside. Aoi winced at the small whimper that came out of it when it skidded across the rocks. She didn't linger because her brother stalked towards her at a frightening pace. His haggard state did little to quell her anxiety.

"Why in wicked white are you here?" Akira's voice came out as an unintended snarl.

"Brother…" She searched for the right words to say. "I've come to… assist you…"

"Assist me?" Akira parroted back at her with an edge. "But why… how…"

Akira looked back to Kusanagi down on the floor, then back to her.

"You shouldn't be here," He then said. "I don't know what possessed you to travel all the way out here, and survive, no less."

"That doesn't matter right now," Aoi spoke over him. "I was with Aqua and those… sinners, and-"

"So you've met Lady Aqua?" Aoi noted the formality in the way he addressed Aqua. He never spoke of her that way amongst themselves. "Then why didn't you take her with you?"

"That was something I thought of doing but… she wouldn't come with me." Aoi decided to not mention that Aqua was siding with the Hanoi soldiers. That was something Akira didn't need to know.

"Then where is she?"

"She's…" Aoi floundered, but remembered the story she had put together. It was close to the truth, enough, only omitting her part. "The Hanoi are still keeping her. They're coercing her to fight some… beast."

Akira directed his attention straight to the castle behind her.

"Then we've no time to waste," Akira grimaced. "I must hurry."

"To persuade her to stand down?" Aoi supplied helpfully.

"No. We are to bring her to heel, under Queen's orders."

"Bring her to heel…?" The implications of such words were concerning. "Why does it sound like you're punishing her?"

"Because her actions threaten the stability of our city-state," her brother remained blunt. "She, as well as her sinful cohorts, must answer for these crimes. If she must be punished to the highest degree, then so it shall be."

"But that can't be right," Aoi denied. "There must be a better way to solve this! In what world would Aqua deserve such treatment?"

"You think her innocent?" Akira challenged her. "Have you any idea how many times she has persisted in evading capture for weeks?"

"She's only afraid and confused!" said Aoi. "The sinners have twisted her mind to believe we mean her harm. If you go after her with cruel intent, you'll only drive her further into their grasp. Neither of us wants that!"

Akira stared back at her, dumbfounded, but Aoi didn't care. He was paying attention to her. This was important if he was going to hear her out.

"But it's not too late, brother," Aoi continued. "If we lay down our arms and propose… some sort of compromise, we can help her see reason and come back to us! We can remind her that we love her and that she belongs with us! If the sinners lose her, then we can persuade them to agree to our demands without the need for fighting!"

By the end of her speech, Akira was speechless for a while, then he scoffed and shook his head. She could faintly hear him mutter to himself.

"This is a waste of my time," He then declared. "Retrieving Lady Aqua has always been the first priority. If the Crystarium retaliates, as their Exarch and his guard are wont to do, then that is their own graves to dig."

He tried to sidle around her, to ignore her, but Aoi latched onto his arm. Pride be damned, she needed to stop him before things got worse. And despite her disadvantaged height, her resistance made him stop.

"What are you doing, Aoi?!" Akira demanded, but made no move to shake her off. "Let go this instant!"

"I want you to listen to me!" Aoi shouted at a volume far greater than she was comfortable with. "You're being irrational about this, brother! If you provoke them, you'll-"

"No, Aoi, you're the irrational one," the words cut clean through Aoi. "Given your childish sentiments and utter… lack of experience, why should I trust your judgment?"

His words left a pounding in Aoi's ears. She could stay calm no longer. Akira's question was frankly insulting, because Aoi did know. In fact, Aoi knew Aqua far better than anyone, than Ema, than the sinners, than Queen herself. She had to speak her mind.

"Because I know what's best for Aqua, as her friend!" Aoi screamed from the inner depths of her her heart. Was it in vain? She didn't know. She didn't care.

"You think so?!" Akira's shock that she would raise her voice at him turned into something new, something dark. Aoi could scarcely believe this man was even her brother. "Because as far as I can tell, you've shown no knowledge of what's at stake in this fight!"

Every fiber of Aoi's being tensed at the accusation. "How dare-"

"I know why you came here!" Akira continued, growing redder by the second. "But I'm sorry to inform you, this is not some play where you are the foolish hero who says and does as she pleases! There is no 'compromise' or 'happy ending' in this conflict!"

Akira was wrong, Aoi wanted to scream at him, but her throat was running dry. He was wrong, absolutely wrong… How could Akira, her brother, say this about her? Why wasn't he looking at her? Listening to her? Why wasn't he…

"You are nothing but a naïve fool! Despite all my warnings, you continue to behave so… so foolishly, I am utterly beside myself!"

Somewhere in the middle of her brother's tirade, Aoi's cheeks felt wet and hot at the same time. She hated that her brother wasn't listening to her, that no one was listening to her. She hated that her own brother was yelling at her. She should be doing something about this, but…

"Aoi, get away!"

A gust of wing blew past Aoi as Ema landed deftly on her all fours then leapt away, with Blood Shepherd nipping at her heels. It seemed that the two had been fighting one on one for the past while, since Akira had been too distracted Kusanagi, the faeries, and later Aoi herself, and the other soldiers were too intimidated by both of them to join in.

Aoi could tell that Ema was somehow winning, since Blood Shepherd's armor was in a lesser condition than hers. Even though her skills were least suited for combat out in the open, Ema was still able to manage, even if it took a million cuts. In fact, she had somehow gotten the man to unmask himself completely. Underneath all that intricate steel was a scarred face and long, sloping ears with purple fur, much like Ema's. Not only was he a Viis, but also a male Viis. [1] How… strange. Aoi had never seen him like this before.

Amid the confusion, Blood Shepherd's eyes met hers, and he stopped chasing after Ema. He then abruptly changed course, going straight for Aoi. His gunblade was drawn closely behind him as he came in for a kill. Aoi was too paralyzed from shock to move, let alone raise her rapier to defend herself. This wasn't some sin eater, or a mere monster. She never dealt with this specific kind of situation before and why wasn't anyone-

"Shepherd, wai-"

"You mustn't!"

In the same instant, Aoi was thrown bodily against the stony path. She winced at the mere scrapes and the faint buzzing in her ears, but when she heard a wet cough, she looked back where she was standing.

"Aoi..." Ema croaked from under Blood Shepherd's hand. "I told you... Not to come..."

The sheer amount of blood spilling out onto the floor brought Aoi's mind come to a screeching halt.

It wasn't supposed to go this way.

Aoi had played the entire scene through her mind as she had flown back to the village. She had imagined that she would be able to make it in time and stop her brother, maybe even turn around to persuade the Hanoi and Aqua to stop whatever they were doing. Aoi had hoped that she could prevent further escalation, but the damage was already done.

She was even going to beg for Akira to cease the fighting, because they were brother and sister, after all. If there was anyone he would listen to, it would certainly be her, first and foremost. The idea of groveling shamelessly before her own brother was hard to swallow, but if it would lead to the better outcome that would protect both her brother and Aqua, she would do it.

But everything had gone completely wrong, and there was nothing below to catch her in her fall. Aoi was completely out of options, and she felt utterly, painfully alone.

She should have known when Ema, the hunters, the Hanoi sinners, none of them welcomed her presence, much less cared that she was there. Worst of all, she should have known when Aqua remained frustrating disagreeable this entire time, not even resisting or offering to come along when Aoi declared she would go to Akira. Perhaps she should have seen this coming far, far back when Akira looked upon her decisions with such scorn…

At first, she thought them fools for not believing in being better. Aoi was so sure that things go her way so she could prove herself, but where did that get her? Would have anything have changed if everything went according to her plans?

If leaving Soltis to chase down her fugitive friends was an absolute fool's errand, what was Aoi even here for? Where could she even go from here?

"Aoi..."

Aoi heard the scrape of her brother's boots draw near. Gloved hands, surely his, held her by the wrist and pulled her to her feet. She couldn't even look at him.

"Enough of this," Akira said, disturbingly kind. "You needn't hurt yourself like this."

She could feel him gently tug her aside, but Aoi refused to move. This was a grave error she had committed: leaving Soltis without any permission and failing to bring back Aqua to make up for it. There was little she nor Akira could do to excuse her actions. Aoi could already imagine the utter humiliation of her final audience with Lord Kitamura and being dragged to the balcony to be casted down to the rocks and oceans below. There was nothing heroic about that.

"You will return home," Akira ordered her softly, as if he hadn't lost his temper at her a while ago. "While I go fetch Aqua, you will remain with the remainder of my forces. We will discuss this no longer."

Did Akira know this? Of course he would. He directly served the very general of the Sol Army, how could he not know? What kind of brother would be so cruel to take her back to certain disgrace, all while speaking sweetly as if he hadn't just allowed for her to be cut down?

"Let me go," She muttered.

"I will not," Akira tightened his grip on her.

"Unhand me!" She snarled, tearing her arms away from him, stumbling back onto the stone cold floor again. "You… are no brother of mine!"

Akira flinched at the very words, and he lost the courage to reach out again.

"Aoi…" He whispered in disbelief.

Aoi couldn't stop the shallow hitch in her breath. She really said it. The very thing that would hurt Akira the most. For years, she had thought of those the words in her mind when he wasn't there for her or didn't grant her wishes, but she played the good, parasitic little sister everyone tolerated for his sake. Those were petty matters back then, but now… Now she could not take them back. What would become of them now? Of her? There was no way she could return to Soltis like this…

"Lord Akira… the-"

"What is it?!" Akira snapped at them. For once, Aoi was grateful that he wasn't looking at her anymore.

"My… my lord!" One of the soldiers gestured for everyone to look up. "The sky!"

All eyes were directed to the patches of pitch black that formed in the atmosphere above them, puncturing holes in the oppressive, primordial Light. It was only a matter of minutes when darkness beat out the light, and all that was left was a dark expanse adorned with small pockets of less threatening lights.

"They've done it!" Kusanagi exclaimed. He finally overpowered the soldiers holding him down while they were too dumbfounded by the latest developments. "They've really done it!"

Ema, unable to move where she lay, looked on ahead as if enthralled by the heavens.

"It's as foretold," she gasped. "The Warrior of Darkness truly has returned after all."

Aoi could scarcely believe her own eyes. Just moments ago it was oppressive day, then suddenly it was the night so coveted by the rest of the realm. She had to wonder why for so long she had been told to blindly fear it. Nothing made sense anymore.

* * *

♬ | The Dark's Kiss by Nobuo Uematsu | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rjrc7uYoMt0) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/5pMskketLAPtHFdqn8vTfu?si=L9rAQ2sQQaiVEl2gxCSDKw)

The night turned the Sol soldiers into an incoherent mess. They stumbled about in the darkness, even if the village was well lit, and begged their superiors for guidance. Kusanagi almost had to feel embarrassed on their behalf.

"Sir Zaizen!" One soldier cried. "What are our orders? What should we do?!"

The adjutant was displeased by the disarray, but he tried to whip them into shape with a draw of his sword and shield, completely his own sister, who sat on the stone path, unmoving. Blood Shepherd followed his lead and reloaded the barrels of his gunblade.

"We do what we came here to do!" Sir Zaizen commanded his men. "Clear out this rabble, and take the Warrior of Darkness captive. Forward, men!"

"Not again..." Kusanagi mumbled to himself as he fumbled through the pages of his codex.

Having spent far too much magic calling forth that powerful summon earlier, Kusanagi didn't know if he had enough to handle another fight. Ema was still struggling with sprained limbs, and Aoi wasn't listening to anyone anymore.

But no matter. Help was on the way, and Sir Zaizen looked like he was at the end of his tether from dealing with uncooperative locals and his own sister.

Sir Zaizen and Blood Shepherd took a step forward but realized none of their men followed them.

"Are you deaf?!" The adjutant roared and spun around to give his men a proper dressing down. "I said-"

Instead of three full grown men, he was confronted by a trio of leafmen staring blankly past him. The telltale giggles filled the air as the pixies flew over their heads. They were no longer scared of the mortals. In fact, the night sky must have emboldened them.

"[A new king has arisen!]" They sang rounds in their own tongue. "[Make ready the feast! Make ready the feast!]"

The anguished cries from the Sol side of things reminded Kusanagi that not all the soldiers had been turned into garden decorations just yet.

"What's... What's happening...?" One of the remaining soldiers stammered as he backed away, but he caught himself mid step when he realized he had stepped into a small pond in the middle of the road. "Water? That wasn't there before-"

He was cut off when something grabbed the poor man by the ankle and dragged him down and away until he wasn't even standing there in the first place. Kusanagi saw the glinting pair of eyes peeking out from the water's surface. It was the eyes of a fuath who had ventured far from the lake to find fresh, unfortunate souls to drown.

"Ah! Put me down!"

Kusanagi looked up and saw another two Sol soldiers suspended in the air. Thankfully, they weren't dead, but they were swung and thrown around like rag dolls. Not far away were the Nu Mou, armed with magicked staffs, directing the dangling soldiers like puppets. They took to their tasks with glee, even singing as they waved the the soldiers about. At this rate, all of Il Mheg must be here. Kusanagi had never felt more grateful to have the far folk on his side.

"What's the matter with you?!" Sir Zaizen tried to maintain order. "Get a hold of yourselves!"

Try as he might, the soldiers had all gone absolutely hysterical after seeing their friends turned into leafmen or tormented by the fae. There was no hope of reassembling them for battle any time soon.

Intervention came at the sound of an otherworldly call, and all eyes fell on the castle of Lyhe Ghiah where a flock of black feathered creatures came down to where they fought. In the midst of the shadows was a bright pink figure flying amongst them. It was the amaro, and someone Kusanagi could only assume was the faerie king... Or maybe they weren't the king, since Yusaku should have killed them earlier to restore darkness.

A powerful force shoved Kusanagi aside, and he could have broken something if not for the thick flowerbeds softening his fall. Blood Shepherd had barreled past him to Sir Zaizen's side. Even if the man was incredibly powerful, even he must have known fighting the fae at their full power was a lost cause.

"We must retreat," Kusanagi heard him say. "They've come in greater numbers."

Frustrated as he was, Sir Zaizen scanned the scene, locking eyes briefly with Kusanagi, who glared back at him with as much ire he could muster. But Blood Shepherd was having none of it, and kept Sir Zaizen from charging out again.

"Those sinners who stand with the Warrior of Darkness..." Blood Shepherd hissed. "They will face justice one day. But today is not that day. We must leave."

The adjutant let out a frustrated cry in response and turned heel and ran. At the very least, he spared Aoi on last look before he gave up. Blood Shepherd didn't even look back to Ema before leaving.

"No!" Kusanagi then heard Ema cry out. "Come back here! You-"

She staggered over her own feet and collapsed where she stood. The wounds she sustained from fighting Blood Shepherd twice were finally catching up to her. Kusanagi abandoned pursuit and went back to help her and Aoi. The time to fight back would come another time.

Now that the amaro flew closer to land, Kusanagi recognized the faces of his comrades riding along the feathered faeries' backs. They dismounted as soon as their amaro landed on the paved steps and quickly came to assist those on the ground. Aqua cried in shock at the battered state Ema was in, and she quickly took over for Kusanagi. The others watched in deep concern as she rolled the older woman onto her side to address to her wounds.

Kusanagi looked first to Yusaku, who looked like he was barely able to stand after a trying battle. Takeru hovered close by, ready to catch his friend if he fell over, while Ai was positively beaming down at them. Every single person in their party was accounted for, which meant that their fight against the Lightwarden went off without a hitch.

Kusanagi felt an instant rush of relief that quickly faded when he spotted a large glowing, orange faerie right behind the others. By sheer size and brilliance, Kusanagi had to assume they were none other than King Titania themselves. Which... made no sense at all to him.

"Uh… Yusaku? That isn't… the king, is it?"

Yusaku nodded weakly, and Ai chimed in, ready to take over for him.

"Allow me to explain!"

* * *

♬ | Where the Heart Is by Masayoshi Soken | [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzHpGMvK0Jo) | [Spotify](https://open.spotify.com/track/2k2jqg1i17YDJfGncceE21?si=5QEsWautQ3ypFpzpEmucfQ)

"Is that right?" Kusanagi absorbed every detail he had been told. "A good thing Roboppy volunteered to take the crown in your stead, then."

"Yes," Yusaku agreed.

Kusanagi then had to crane his neck to meet Roboppy in the eyes now that the faerie had grown so big. "We are grateful for your timely aid, Roboppy, er… Your Majesty?"

Ai and Takeru were quick to tell Kusanagi which titles Roboppy preferred, but their chatter was relegated to the background while the Hanoi soldiers slipped into the conversation.

"Still, Your Majesty," Spectre remarked. "'Tis a considerable change compared to all the times before when the whole lot of you were reluctant to assist us."

"We all but wished to make the most of our first night in recent memory," Roboppy smiled serenely. "We exist only for the present, not to futures that may or may not be. We are not driven as men are, and so we cannot fight for causes as men do."

Like children, Yusaku remembered how he described the faeries when he and Takeru first came here.

"In which case," Revolver began to make assumptions. "Without the influence of your former ruler, have your minds changed about aiding us against the sin eaters?"

"Not unless the mood takes us," Roboppy said after a moment of thought. "But as we are indebted to you mortals, that's another matter."

"To take back as much as is taken. To create as much as destroyed. To give as much as is received," Spectre recited back to the king.

Roboppy nodded in approval. "As such, in return for the beautiful sky you have restored to us, we shall lend you our strength. Do not hesitate to call."

And so the alliance was sealed. The Hanoi had managed to accomplish everything that they wanted here in Il Mheg.

"Sad to see you go then," Takeru chimed in. "What with all your new responsibilities and all."

"Go?" Roboppy tilted their head. "I'm not going anywhere, silly mortal."

"What?"

"So the contract we had was not annulled?" Yusaku asked.

"Of course not, silly sapling!" Roboppy shook their head in good humor. "'Tis no trouble for me to send a little part of me to accompany you whilst my body be in the castle."

"That's…" Yusaku shut his mouth quickly. He wouldn't say he was relieved, but he wasn't upset.

"Your beautiful branch shall forevermore remain at your side," Roboppy smiled warmly at him. "See you real soon!"

With a flourish of their wings, the new king of Il Mheg took off into the night sky, making loops as they went with the amaro following suit. The other faeries continued their celebrations on the ground, although Yusaku saw some of the tired ones retreat to their homes.

"With the Warden gone, our work is done," Revolver concluded. "It is time we be going."

"Back… to the Crystarium?" Takeru asked tentatively. Yusaku wanted to know this as well.

"Yes," was Revolver's reply. "The Exarch instructed us to return swiftly to report and make plans for our next target."

"I'd be hard pressed to believe the city was spared from the Sol army's attention. ," Kusanagi was equally doubtful. "And I wouldn't want to run into the adjutant and his men again. Especially in our current state."

While Yusaku was admittedly aching all over and understandably in need of rest, he, and Kusanagi, shifted his gaze in Aqua's direction as she was still dressing Ema's wounds. Ema and Aoi were out of sorts in their own way. Ema was understandably enduring a great deal of pain and was fighting to stay awake for as long as she could. Ai hovered closely by, watching Aqua with much worry.

Aoi had not spoken at all ever since they came back to help. Yusaku wasn't sure what the girl had gone through, but considering that her brother was leading the charge into the Il Mheg, he assumed they must have had a terrible spat and realized some terrible realities. Aqua must be dealing with a lot on her plate, having to take care of both of them when they returned.

"Well, I would like to see the Crystarium for myself," Spectre demanded. "I have not yet seen the city for years, and I have good faith that the Hanoi Guard have not deteriorated in my absence."

"And how will we avoid the Sol army who took the same route as us to get here?" Yusaku challenged him. As selfish as Spectre (and Revolver) were, he didn't think they'd be so foolish as to make the entire party tail behind them.

"We won't come to face with the Sol army for a long while," Revolver answered. "But we are going back the same way we came, courtesy of the Crystal Exarch's magic."

"Teleportation?" Kusanagi suspected, but the Hanoi didn't spare an explanation. Instead, he gave orders.

"Gather the others."

It didn't take long for Aqua to be told to finish up her ministrations and help Ema up to her feet. Kusanagi was ever so gracious to take up most of the heavy lifting in her stead. Aqua then decided to help Aoi up, taking her hand and gently leading her to join the others. Aoi, as per usual, said nothing and stared at nothing.

"Come close," Revolver instructed them, but no one was trusting enough to do so.

With a huff, Spectre did the honors and took his place beside Revolver. He sent the others a pointed look, daring them to come up with better excuses.

Seeing as the others were still reluctant, Yusaku sucked in a quick breath and stepped forward. He remembered how large those circles were and did the absolute minimum to be within summoning distance. Revolver made an agitated noise at his civil disobedience.

Thanks to Yusaku's bravery, however, the others mustered the courage to follow suit. They all stood at varying distances between Revolver and Yusaku.

"Right, then," Just as Revolver spoke again, everything was set in motion. Just like the first time, the arcane rings cropped up around them and glowed with a low him. Yusaku felt the forceful tug at his heart, and then they were off.

* * *

1 Scars and partial blindness are simply occupational hazards for fantasy mercenaries, so I gave Kengo a very big one on his face as consequence for an incident equivalent to the canonical car crash. Also for those not in the know, it's an FF lore thing for the bunny boys like Kengo to be almost impossible to find because they usually live in virtual isolation away from everyone, including their female counterparts. The fact he's even out in the open is significant and will be a later plot point but that's the simplest explanation I can give.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Deepest apologies for anyone who likes Akira and isn't enjoying him in the middle of getting his shit together. I feel like the Zaizens are going to have the most development out of the entire cast. I got hung up on this chapter because I didn't want to mess up this important turning point for them. I hope we'll see their progress through to the end together.


End file.
